The liquid‐wedge technique has been used to excite ultrasonic surface waves on various solids; using this technique, only a suitable noncorrosive liquid need come into contact with the solid, and no acoustic power need be coupled into the bulk of the solid. An optical probe was used to measure the surface‐wave pattern excited; data obtained from this probe are presented, and results for the surface‐wave attenuation on stainless steel are given.