[meteorite-list] etching irons with ferric chloride solutionfrom radio shack

[mark ford]

Hi Bob,

Well to be honest I just shove a few table spoonfuls into a pint of distilled water, (i.e. unchlorinated water) and stir. 

The best stuff to use really though, is 'Sodium Hydroxide', which is sold in hardware stores to unblock drains etc. otherwise known as caustic soda, (at least here in the UK..) this can be added to industrial alcohol, (it will dissolve but it takes hours!) or you could use sodium hydroxide with water, but you must dry the specimen well, in a warm place for a number of hours then coat the iron in plenty of gun oil, (which contains a rust inhibitor).

It's not perfect, but it works, etching anything is a destructive process.

Best
Mark


-----Original Message-----
From: Bob King [mailto:lakewind at infionline.net] 
Sent: Friday, January 28, 2005 2:01 AM
To: mark ford
Subject: RE: [meteorite-list] etching irons with ferric chloride solutionfrom radio shack

Hi Mark,
I plan on doing some etching with ferric chloride and have read your 
postings with interest. Tell me though, how do you prepare the sodium 
bicarbonate solution? Thanks!
Bob

Subject:        	RE: [meteorite-list] etching irons with ferric chloride
	solutionfrom	radio shack
Date sent:      	Thu, 27 Jan 2005 10:32:09 -0000
From:           	"mark ford" <markf at ssl.gb.com>
To:             	<meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>

> 
> 
> Ferric Chloride has been used for many years for etching meteorites. (I personally etched a small Canyon Diablo in about 1985 and it has never shown any signs of rust). Iv'e even etched campos in Ferric, and they are fine too. 
> 
>  You must neutralize the iron after etching however, in Sodium hydroxide solution (caustic soda) or Sodium bicarbonate soln.)
> 
> It is important to clean the meteorite and remove all traces of etchant. And etch as quickly as possible (I.E concentrated and warm) so that the solution doesn't have time to penetrate into the meteorite.
> 
> Nitric acid is used for etching as well, this has it's own problems with stability,
> 
> In either case, as long as you take care to neutralize it, then It should give no problems. Personally I have found Ferric Chloride to give a far better quality of etch, even under mag it is noticeable.
> 
> Best
> Mark
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Göran Axelsson [mailto:axelsson at acc.umu.se] 
> Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2005 11:17 PM
> To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] etching irons with ferric chloride solutionfrom radio shack
> 
> I thought that the general idea was chlorine and iron makes rusting 
> meteorites.
> I wouldn't use it myself. I used some to etch circuit boards in my youth and
> if you drop some grains of iron chloride it will pull moisture from the air
> until it's completely dissolved.
> If you dip an iron into FeCl solution it will be drawn into dry 
> fractures and
> surfaces and to get it out without electrolysis is probably really slow 
> work.
> 
> Am I wrong in my speculations? Anyone tested this already?
> 
> I use the alcohol and nitric acid etch. Not only because I have it 
> handy, but
> also to avoid chlorine contaminations.
> 
> /Göran
> 
> harlan trammell wrote:
> 
> > i thought i'd try it on a cheap iron- anybody got any pointers on 
> > swabbing, rinsing , waiting, etc.?!
> >
> >
> > i will be gradually switching over to yahoo mail (it has 100 FREE megs 
> > of storage). please cc to: bigpineartifacts at yahoo.com 
> > <mailto:bigpineartifacts at yahoo.com>
> >
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