26C3 Carbon Steel - Spicy White

[Willie71]

I thought I was the only one who thought that ...
From a practical perspective I’m in agreement with you but we all know it’s a cool look and selling point​

I’m in the same boat too. If people want to pay for it, then enjoy! Some use 1500 sic powdered abrasives once a month to bring the hamon back out. I provide some every knife I sell with a hamon.

 

[comet_sharp]

I’m in the same boat too. If people want to pay for it, then enjoy! Some use 1500 sic powdered abrasives once a month to bring the hamon back out. I provide some every knife I sell with a hamon.

I do the same, good man!

 

[jdm61]

I am wondering about the whole hamon thing on kitchen knives. I just used Hoss' advice and did a damascus blade totally with Gator and cork belts, no hadn't sanding required. It made me happy. I HATE hand sanding. I an thinking about doing forced patina finishes on my monosteel blades.

 

[timos-]

finally bit the bullet and got myself a forge, gettin the parks and satanite ...got a bunch of the 26c3....gonna be a fun weekend

 

[Willie71]

finally bit the bullet and got myself a forge, gettin the parks and satanite ...got a bunch of the 26c3....gonna be a fun weekend

Rabbit hole, there you go!

 

[wade7575]

What is this steel like as far as it's cutting characteristics is it aggressive like M390 and M4.

 

[Josh Rider]

It takes a fine edge. I’m testing this one in the kitchen now.

 

[DeadboxHero]

What is this steel like as far as it's cutting characteristics is it aggressive like M390 and M4.

No, it's like Hitachi Shirogami #1 "white paper" steel
But with a little "spice"

 

[Willie71]

I heat treated a kiritsiku yesterday, corrected a small warp today, and am doing a quick etch to see the hamon after grinding off decarb with a 120g belt. I got Rc63/64 using my W2 protocol, 1460fx10 min, into DT-48, 300f temper. I went lower than the recommended 1475f, to see what type of activity I get in the hamon. I was going for choji. Pics later. I’m going to test heat treat from 1430f to 1480f to see what my optimum temp is in my shop.

Grinding seems to be a bit harder than W2 or 52100, but no where near z-wear. Probably like z-tuff or A2.

 

[Josh Rider]

I heat treated a kiritsiku yesterday, corrected a small warp today, and am doing a quick etch to see the hamon after grinding off decarb with a 120g belt. I got Rc63/64 using my W2 protocol, 1460fx10 min, into DT-48, 300f temper. I went lower than the recommended 1475f, to see what type of activity I get in the hamon. I was going for choji. Pics later. I’m going to test heat treat from 1430f to 1480f to see what my optimum temp is in my shop.

Grinding seems to be a bit harder than W2 or 52100, but no where near z-wear. Probably like z-tuff or A2.

I’m using the same, 1460°, 10minute soak.
I got 67 out of the quench, but I was using parks 50. I’m going to try a little higher next time to see if I can get 68, but I’m more interested in hamon activity.

 

[Willie71]

I’m using the same, 1460°, 10minute soak.
I got 67 out of the quench, but I was using parks 50. I’m going to try a little higher next time to see if I can get 68, but I’m more interested in hamon activity.

I might do a trial with 1500 and cryo to see how hard it gets.

 

[Willie71]

I can see a lot of activity, but there is no way I can photograph it at 120g. I’ll post photos when I get it finished better.

 

[Josh Rider]

I might do a trial with 1500 and cryo to see how hard it gets.

Cryo? Have you used cryo on any other high carbon steels?

 

[Willie71]

Cryo? Have you used cryo on any other high carbon steels?

I’ve not used it on any customer knives, but you can get Rc72 if you use cryo to deal with retained austenite with a 1.2% carbon steel. Black diamond files worked that way. You get brittle plate martensite.

 

[Justin Schmidt]

Gonna try some different things after talking to Willie71 but this is what I have so far

 

[Robert Erickson]

Cryo? Have you used cryo on any other high carbon steels?

Hey Josh, here's an article by Larrin that discusses cryo for 52100. It looks like an extra 0.5RC can be obtained with it. I'm going to try it the next time I do a 52100 blade.

 

[jdm61]

So how thick do you guys apply your clay on kitchen blades? I seem to have less luck with thin unbeveled W2 blades in that .100 range than I do say with a thick .25-.28 Bowie blade that had the bevels ground down to say .050 at the edge. Do you need to go a bit thicker and higher on the thin blades?

 

[Larrin]

Hey Josh, here's an article by Larrin that discusses cryo for 52100. It looks like an extra 0.5RC can be obtained with it. I'm going to try it the next time I do a 52100 blade.

https://knifesteelnerds.com/2019/05/13/how-to-heat-treat-52100/

 

[samuraistuart]

Just did my first HT with it yesterday. 1475°F 10 minutes, P50 quench. 66-67HRC. 2 hour temper x 3 @ 300F and it's about 64-65HRC, exactly what I was shooting for with this petty. I'll be grinding today, and hope to report back what hand sanding feels like. Should be quite easy.

John, that is a beautiful hamon. I like that banding as well. Like yous said, "Light but appealing". Can't wait to see what' I've got.

 

[Josh Rider]

So how thick do you guys apply your clay on kitchen blades? I seem to have less luck with thin unbeveled W2 blades in that .100 range than I do say with a thick .25-.28 Bowie blade that had the bevels ground down to say .050 at the edge. Do you need to go a bit thicker and higher on the thin blades?

Yeah, I’d go a little thicker and further down. I was surprised because my first hamon was higher than I like, the second one was in a good place on the blade but if you look near the middle of my hamon, it looks like there wasn’t clay in some places where there was.
It’s a little different that how i clay w2.