Hard Ground Etching

Starting with a raw piece of copper, this video demonstrates the basics of preparing an etching plate with hardground.
00:05 Measure and mark
00:23 Cut
00:52 Polish and degrease
01:49 Apply hardground
03:08 Stickyback plastic the back of the plate
03:56 Draw/image the plate
05:40 Stopping out
07:28 Etch in Ferric Chloride
09:20 Bevel the edges

[@thetruthexperiment]

If you happen to have a fully decked out etching workshop here’s what you do.

[@professortruszkowski]

🤓

[@Kazbah007]

What ground brand do you recommend?

[@professortruszkowski]

For “ball grounds”, applied with a roller on a hot plate, I use Charbonnel brand. Unfortunately, even with a good backup supply, I am about to run out and it seems impossible to find now. I have experimented with Graphic Chemical brand hard ball ground and it works well but seems to need higher temps to melt it to the plate. I have lots of this so that’s what I/we will be using in the near future. For liquid hard ground, I use Graphic Chemical brand. It works well for when we need it (usually doing a “lift ground” process). Good luck!

[@Kazbah007]

@Professor Truszkowski Thank you for your answer! I just started using Trilobite Hard Opaque Ball from Takach Press. There is almost no information about it. We'll see if it's OK.

[@Lauren-ily2]

Can you use a griddle as a hot plate?

[@professortruszkowski]

@@Lauren-ily2 Yes you can, but with hard ball grounds such as this, temperature is important. A griddle with a thermostat would be ideal so you can set it (more) precisely, but even if it has a low-med-high dial or something like that, you’d probably be fine. Good luck!

[@Lauren-ily2]

@@professortruszkowski Awesome! Thank you!