The Armour Etch kit came with everything needed (even a piece of practice glass) for learning how to chemically etch glass.   There are a variety of patterns (letters, simple shapes, detailed designs), glass cleaner, knife, spreader, brush, gloves, and etching cream.   The tools included in the kit are designed to be used a few times and then discarded.

The glass must be free of grease, fingerprints, and other bits which may mask the work of the chemical.  Any chemical which can etch glass must be handled with care.  The Armour Etch bottle contains plenty of warnings to that effect.

The chemicals in the etching cream appears quite toxic, so care must be taken when using it.  We would recommend using latex gloves (included) and eye protection when applying the cream.

There are quite a few etching project one can do with this kit.  In the FirstUse article, we'll follow the steps and show how to etch a pattern on a glass object.

Working with glass is easy if you have the proper tools.  We are fairly well equiped to work with stained glass.  In the shop is a diamond coated saw, glass grinder, all manners of glass pliers and carbide cutters.

The one thing we were not able to do was to etch glass.  We had considered getting a sandblasting hood, but weren't sure of how much etching we would really do.  One of the folks here remembered reading about an etching cream called ArmourEtch which would create a similar effect, but without all of the fuss.

Review:

1. FirstLook

2. FirstUse

Usually we don't write things up until we are done, but we have been getting requests from you, our readers, to post projects as they progress...so here it is :-)    Send us questions, comments and suggestion as you see fit.