Silver Etching

Jewelry Discussion
1

Hi Barbara:

I’ve never etched silver with ferric chloride - only copper - am I
missing something? I didn’t think ferric chloride would etch silver.
Am I wrong?

Kay

2 
    I've never etched silver with ferric chloride - only copper -
am I missing something?  I didn't think ferric chloride would etch
silver. Am I wrong?

Yes you have, it does a great job, but just takes longer. Try it
sometime on just a small piece and see how you might light to use it.

GRAMMY

3 
    I've never etched silver with ferric chloride - only copper - am
I missing something?  I didn't think ferric chloride would etch
silver.

It’s ferric nitrate you want for silver, not ferric chloride.

Donna in VA

4

\Nils Schwarz shared the best silver etching process I have used so
far. He used a solution of phosphoric acid for anodic depletion. I
tried it using Ospho from my local hardware store as the mordant with
a titanium sheet for the cathode and my antique plating rectifier as
the DC source. It worked great. There is no undercutting. The etched
lines are shaped like square bottomed V’s.

Ospho is safe, cheap and easy to get and as far as I know it isn’t
very toxic to dispose of. John Flynn

5

Sounds like an interesting process, I am eager to try it. A couple
of details are unclear to me. What was the material of the cathode
(or are you using an anode?) What was the DC voltage? Richard Bynum

6

Sounds like a COOL method. How about some more specifics.
Concentration of Phosphoric acid, voltage, current density, bath
temperature, depletion time required? What do you use as a resist?
Could a silver sheet be used as the Cathode instead of titanium? Does
the titanium sheet eventually become plated with the silver removed
from the Anode? What is OSPHO? Is it a commercial grade of phosphoric
acid? I’ve never seen this product in a local hardware store. I’ll
give it a try…Bob Williams