Forging two fossil Damascus kitchen knives. ferric chloride vs gator piss 

Slots for the knife raffle can be purchased here www.paypal.com/paypalme/johnhowardnorwood Giveaway winner get in touch with me johnhowardnorwood@gmail.com Check out baker forge and tool here instagram.com/bakerforgeandtool/ Instagram instagram.com/oldhickoryforge/ Support the channel here www.patreon.com/user?u=16387344 Purchase some of my work here www.etsy.com/shop/OldHickoryForge?ref=shop_sugg Videography by Dan Bailey Dan.bailey84@yahoo.com

Beautiful work and I gotta go with the Piss

Nice blades bro and gator piss took the show on that one

The gator piss is the superior choice for me.

I really prefer the dark etch with the gator piss over the standard finish the ferric chloride but then I prefer dark contrasts in blades.

I like the darker with the gater piss both are beautiful great work John

I just like the design of the blades themselves.

My chef knives will slice paper sometimes after hand sanding. Easy way I’ve found is slowing down your belt and keeping it soaked using old 120grits. It takes some time to get comfortable with getting them that tin but you nice you get it the first time it’s an awesome tool in the kitchen for sure. 👍 i had my heart set one one of these so bad 😂

I believe ferric is the winner for this one. When it comes to mosaics I prefer the darker gatorpiss. Both were great though.

Yes! A new Hickory Forge video!!

I forgot to mention in the video. An advantage that the gator piss has over traditional ferric. It can be used on more complex pattern welds like copper cu mai or bronze mai without contamination like you would have with ferric.

IMO the etch is what every the customer wants

Right on! Blades look awesome!🔥

I love the Gator piss etching.

I really like this format of doing an experiment with competing products. It is one thing to be told about the results, and another to actually see them.

Thanks, John. Those knives look great! Congratulations to the winner.

My sad ass watching this knowing I can't get my hands on that piss. Beautiful work man :)

Excellent comparison video John! Appreciate the support brother 🤘🏽

I like the ferric chloride better. Deeper colors IMO. Good video.

They all be masterpieces.

They are both winners to me! What a great patern, on both of them! Thank you so much.

Gator piss for sure... Wow who knew! Contrast is awesome!

Just want to say I do enjoy watching you make knives!!

They both are beauties nice work 👍

I like the Gator Piss. The dark contrast is really nice.

the coffee etch is very similar to the gatorpiss it gives the black glass look to the dark steel they both have their own unique characteristics

Thank you

Gator piss for the win....only because it looks different than the ferric that we're all accustomed too.

What do I think. I think I want both!!! Awesome work fit to finish!!!!

I think both look nice but the ferric chlorid is more subtle and elegant!

The Gator Piss’ darker color looks more like a ferric chloride & coffee etch. More important to me is what do the finishes look like after a few months of real use. Looking great on the sales table is easy…how do the finishes wear / look after use? That’s the real question for tools that will be used (in my kitchen at least.) Thanks for sharing!

Awesome blades mate, definitely the gator piss hands down. Love the idea of fossil Damascus.

Amazing knives!

Awesome blades, as always! As far as those loose wire connectors, you should grab some 4004 connectors they can be installed in that box without taking anything apart, just a two second repair.

Yeah sure, I'll stick around... I wanna see!

I also enjoy the fossil Damascus. I think both enchants are nice, but that dark boldness of the gator piss is nice.

Beautiful. Wow. Awesome to see your videos and work sir. Can't wait to see more videos soon. Keep up the great craftsmanship and hard work my friend. Forge On. Fab On. Weld On. Keep forge lit. Keep Making. God Bless.

They're both super cool. I'm slightly more inclined towards the traditional etch, but dang, they both look GREAT!

Awesome work!

I’ve been doing one or two cycles of gator piss and then 8 hours in coffee to darken the high carbon. It comes out awesome! Let me know if you want to see a photo of my latest I just finished a mosaic twist Damascus Tanto! P.S. I love your work!!

Gater piss gota get some of that stuff WOW nice build fun watching and learning thanks for the stainless and spray paint ideas looking forward to the attempt thanks again as always

Fossil is really cool... if you wanna do some really wild fossil, use both 1095/84 and KC4600/4800 in your can. The 1095/84 is dark powder and the KC4600/4800 is shiny. Kelly Cupples makes the shiny stuff. You can get it in 2% Nickel (4600) or 4% Nickel (4800)... if you layer them with the cutoffs, it gives the final product a really wild look. White paint adheres to the can better and doesnt flake. If whiteout flakes into the powder, the TiO2 will inhibit the powder welding fully. Canister is by far my favorite method, and im currently making a canister of KC4800 with nickel-wound bass strings packed into it. I use this as a jacket on a sanmai-type laminating process and a core of 1095/15n20 damascus with a layer of pure nickel inbetween. Should be a cool end result. Are you on twitter or IG by chance? Id love to follow more of your work, if youre still making on a regular basis.

I learned a few new things today. Thanks a bunch John, great work. … Also, on my kitchen knives, the bevel is basically the edge. It takes a lot of time, especially because you want the steel to be so hard, but it gives an amazing edge. Not what you want on a utility knife, but great in this application.

Good stuff as always

Both look fantastic. Ferris wins for me only because it's a kitchen knife. I like less contrast for stuff that touches my food. The darkness just looks dirty to me.

Great to see the radius platen been used to make those beautiful knives🔥

Showed me some really cool ideas John, really enjoyed it.. love the old school patterns the best. Thanks for everything

Great work. Both look good. I think which every etchant you use should be used based on what you are going for. If you are wanting a knife with softer etches and has smoother lines, use ferric. Likewise if you want bold and something that really pops, then use Gator. But that's my 2 cents.

Just hand forging two Damascus blades - nothing to it really! (Watches in complete awe)

I like them both the traditional ferric was awesome and the gator piss was awesome too but I kind of like a dark blade myself

Great blades. I enjoy making fossil, its like Christmas morning. Like the ferric etch better.

Awesome work man! Love these

Man the knife you asked in the gator this is very dark. I like that deeper black contrast. And is always good work John

Gatorpiss for the win!

Both are awesome, but I'm going with Gator Piss for the win Kinda like Dead On Plastix

Mr John, i hope your doing better and hope your out of the hospital. If no one knows Mr John and his family were effected by the n.c t.n hurricane.

I lean more to the gator piss. But we can't get it in South Africa. I would keep both ferric and the gator piss. That way you have 2 options

Interesting finish on the Gator Piss Knife, sort of like a Traditional Ferric Chloride etch followed up by Coffee Darkening/Etching... without having to use a Jewelers Cloth to strip the oxides afterwards. I might have to grab me a bottle of it and do some experimentation. By the way, those S-Grinds turned out really good... The usual trick for reinforcing the edge with a kitchen knife like that is to apple seed the edge all the way to zero on your slack belt... makes the blade hair popping sharp. Also... a tip for striking in an S-Grind... you get a lot better control and a better view of what you're doing if you strike in your fullers Spine Up. I know that it sounds counter intuitive but it just works.

I think, the Gator Piss etch is too dark. Two nice knives 👍👍

Interesting comparison, and thanks for doing it. My personal inclination would be to use ferric on my mosaic blades, and probably try the gator piss on more random pattern stuff, like you made.

Great build & demo - Thank you. I'll have to try the fossil canister a try!! Status of the 'for profit' drawing for the second knife?

Beautiful work. Gator piss for me.

Great video, really like the style and commentary. I really appreciate how you share your learnings with us. Subscribed.

hey just joined and i know about the gater piss and i like the gater piss

I'm leaning towards the gator piss

Nice.

S grind is concave convex, hence the "s"

Never heard of the gator piss but I'd be willing to give it a try based off these results. That being said, I hope the company that you bought it from appreciates the advertising you're doing and no that doesn't make you a schill. Also, your shop is filling up with some damned nice tools. Looks like things are going well for you, brother. You've come a long way since your first videos beating the piss out of some metal behind your house in cargo shorts. Keep it up, man.

Thanks John. I don't know if you need to choose between the 2 etches. Having another tool in the toolbox is never a bad thing. One question from your forge build video, do you think placing the ribbon burner at an angle is any better than straight up and down on top, or just personal preference?

Great video gator piss John...

"Hey Folks, John here at nothing to it really..."

The GP etch is the best in my opinion

I love, love, love that you are recycling all those scrap pieces. I wish there was a way to do the canister with minimal powder. Do you think you would twist or fold your fossil billet next time? What a pain in the butt that transition area of the bolster and blade face must be. I love that spinning-the-wheel thing for your giveaway.

Both knives came out looking great, but if I had to pick one, I think for this kind of essentially random pattern you get with fossil damascus the ferric chloride looks better. The starker contrast from the gator piss I think would suit a more "organized"/geometric pattern.

Nice looking knives. At 14:13 you are cutting paper like butter and yet you said you were going to put a secondary bevel. I have two Japanese knives and none have secondary bevel and they perform real good. All of my other knives that have secondary bevel don't cut as good as the Japanese knives, no matter how sharp they are.

I like the gator piss

Missed it by THAAAAT much..

Do you take ordinary steel or stainless steel pipes for the canister?

Gator piss seemed darker but it up to you

i personally feel the ferric just greys the blade whereas the gator actually gets good contrast, I have used gator piss myself and ferric and id still go with gator piss

I always love your vids please keep up the good work. And i definitely like the Gator Piss etch, and is it actually gator piss?

like the black handled one better.

I don't think it is a thing where one is better than the other. They both gave great results. You are not always going to want a dark black contrast to the steel, and sometimes you do. In the case of these knives, I would go with the gator piss for the black handle one, and ferric chloride with the lighter handled one. That gator piss seemed to make it easy to get that heavy black. I have watched many, many videos where the maker is trying to get that result from ferric chloride and coffee, but simply can not. I would definitely to try that stuff. That said, I would not o use it on everything.

Gator piss for sure.

Gator Piss ❤

You got a loose connector on the tire hammer switch...May want to fix that before you have the wrong kind of sparks in there...

The gator piss looks better imo But ferric chloride is classic and will be here for the rest of time so idk

👍👍👍

Like ferric better great job.

Aluminum Dioxide is whats in most spray paint. Just like how everyone missuses the word either in youtube its just what its called these days lmao. Who am I to judge what the paint uses for its pronoun. Gatorpiss looks like you coffee etched it. Very cool. Going to have to try it.

Kinda digging the piss.

OOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH

Have you been on Forged on Fire?

Gator piss every day 😂😂😂😂

HAHA 4-20

I will stick with traditional methods...they work better, cheaper, and maintain the integrity that bladesmithing should have. Why they would name it something like "gator piss"? IMHO the name is enough to turn me off on ever using, recommending, or promoting the product.