1075 from Aldo

[G. Shahan]

My last order from Aldo I added some 1075 as an after thought.
Having never worked with 1075 I began with some research on ht and worked up a recipe about the same as I use for 1084.
I forged 10 knives, HT two, checked edge for chipping or rolling and general edge holding. I tweaked temper temp a little until I was happy.
Pretty impressed so far!

Here is my HT
After forging to shape thermal cycle in my forge twice then three times in my evenheat oven, 1525, 1475, and 1425.
cooling to room temp after each cycle.
next 1250 for one hour then let the blades cool in the oven for a couple of hours.

Next rough grind and Ht. Half the blades got clayed for hamon.

HT, bring oven to 1475 and let sit for 20 min. Add blades, wait 10 min, quench in parks 50 then into 450° oven for hour and a half
twice.
Draw back tang and ricasso to grey with a torch.

Now the fun part, I finish sanded and etched one of the clayed blades and found the hamon was odd or at least different.
It had a grainy look like wrought iron only finer.

 

[G. Shahan]

I broke one of the clayed blades and have some pics but can't seem to get them down loaded.

To make a long story short the grain was very fine, silky like a broken file.
Even the clayed portion was very fine grained.

It was also the toughest blade I ever tried to break. I like this stuff. You should try some if you haven't yet.

Greg

 

[G. Shahan]

Here's a couple of pics.

 

[Bo T]

Have you tried a normalization cycle where you went 1525 --> 900 --> 1475 --> 900 --> 1425 --> 900 --> 1250 --> room? I am just wondering if this would give you similar grain refinement.

 

[G. Shahan]

Hey Bo,

I have not. I would assume cooling to black would be just fine.
I usually am back at my anvil long enough to cool to room temp and waiting for my oven to cool and equalize to the next lower temp.

My reason for the post was to say how impressed with this steel. HT was simple and the performance was outstanding.
I also was wondering if anyone else noticed the odd hamon?

Thanks, Greg

 

[Mudbug007]

I used some 1075/1080 from Admiral when I first started out. Probably on my 7th knife or some where about there. I heard you get get a hamon from it and this is what I got when I acid etched it.

 

[kevin -the professor]

That 1075 from Aldo is MAGIC when it comes to hamons. I use it a lot. You can get some truly beautiful heat treatment patterns. I normalize x 3, descending. Start at 1525F, 1450F, 1400F. Then heat to 1450F and hold for about 3 minutes to equalize everything, then quench in warm water for 3 sec, out and into oil (either parks or canola, depending upon size of the blade).
kc

edited to add: in fact, look at the pic for my avatar, that was the first big blade I ever made from this stuff. I get even better hamons now. That was the FIRST try.