Have you ever been afraid of etching because of the hazardous chemicals and lengthy list of expensive and often hard to find items? Then this tutorial is for you!

Etching metal without acid is safe and easy. With this method, you can safely etch copper, bronze, brass and nickel. This tutorial describes how to use rubber stamps, a solvent based ink pad and a cellphone charger you pick up at the thrift store or from your junk drawer in a container of salt water, to produce beautiful etches like the ones in the photos. You can use other types of resists with this method as well, like sharpie paint pens, Future Floor Wax, nail polish, spray lacquer, etc.

If you'd like to etch your own designs onto copper, like line drawings or computer based designs from clip art, check out my PnP Transfers Made Easy for Metal Etching Tutorial. It helps to demystify using PnP transfer film to transfer toner based images (ones from a copier or laser printer) onto your metal.