Creating attractive etched metal pieces for jewelry requires masking portions of the metal to prevent the etchant from etching those areas. The unetched areas will be the high points on the metal.
This rubber stamp design transferred and etched nicely.
Lines need to be at least as wide as the etch will be deep. Lines should be a little wider than how you’d like them to be when the etching is done to allow for the fact that the etchant will typically undercut your design lines a bit.
If you’re doing a deep etch, use lines that are at least 1/32″ wide. Finer details might be lost.
There are a variety of resists you can use to created etched designs on metal. Here are some of our favorites:
- Fine point Sharpie pens
- Staedler red ink pens
- Stazon ink pads (black and red work best) and rubber stamps.
- Press-n-Peel (PnP) Blue paper or other toner transfers. If using transfers, be sure to reverse the text and images before you print them.
If you mess up your design, use Stazon cleaner to remove the ink and try again. The etchant will eat through faint, blurry or thin ink, so make sure your lines are dark and crisp.
That’s basically it! Please feel free to add any experiences you’ve had with etched designs by leaving a comment. The DIY etching tutorial has full instructions for etching metal. Please also read the safety considerations. Thanks! ~ Cindy
2 Comments
Hi Cindy! I am looking to do some acid etching on metal using blue PnP paper to transfer my image onto the metal. I am very new to this process and am struggling to find the right way to print my image onto the blue PnP paper. I am wondering what kind of printers I can use and how I can set those up to make sure they are using the correct ink when printing the image I want to use on the PnP paper.
It looks like you may have experience using PnP paper and I was hoping you could give me some direction and insight. Thank you!! – Megan
Hi Megan, you need a laser printer that uses dry toner. (Not a laser jet, but an actual laser printer.)
Thank you for asking… we upgraded to a new website in 2015, and forgot to update the links in this article, to go to the new website. That’s fixed now, thanks to your question. (And we’re upgrading again in 2021 and may have to fix the links again.) If you click the PnP link above, it will take you to some more info, including a (free) downloadable PDF. Also, please read the product reviews for some more tips from users.
Some people have run into issues with “recent” model Brother laser printers. (Recent = 2019-ish) So it’s possible that newer Brother laser printers work. Our ancient HP 4500 and slightly newer 5500 (but now old) both worked fine.
–Polly