I would like to understand the aversion to the use of salt in light of the fact that here lots of people etch krises by using salt, sulphur and rice water....
How is that salt any different from the other?
watch this to see how a blade is caked with salt, sulphur slurry made with rice water ....
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?p=259289
Anyway the boiling is salt water could be substituted by hot water alone if you must but remember that any salt residue would be removed by cleaning and furthermore any etching done preferably with Warangal would take care of removal of salt.
I have done this 3 times and still have no adverse effects