So I ordered some of the 26C3 @Alpha Knife Supply and so did my friend
Gilbert M
Gilbert had ordered some and said he was thinking about making some san mai with it.
While I'm a big user of laminated steels, I've only made it once and I wanted more exposure to it. Gilbert has done some san mai work so I jumped at the chance.
We were unable to procure 410 ss cladding stock in time so we went with AEB-L as it was readily available and inexpensive. So here is what we did and what I learned so far. I'm no expert, I'm just conveying what we/I did,
we used two bars of 26C3, .078 thck, one bar of aeb-l clad per side
I'm used to the core being about 33% of the total thickness, so this san mai was different for me in that sense.
executive summary, this work was done yesterday Saturday
1) forge weld in controlled forge with ribbon burner - 2250 F
2) material was simple and easy to work with
3) we normalized cycled the steel after drawing it out, my overall bar (core centering) was not as good as Gilberts due to my limited power hammer skills
4) I used my standard process anneal practice of dull cherry red and into ash - result was the steel was hard and not annealed, difficult to saw, difficult to drill, not sure why.... Will have to use different anneal technique.
5) I HT using my standard practice for Hitachi laminated steel, heat in forge, quench in water, flash temper.
6) no problems cracking or delam in water quench
7) The hardened blade would not straighten easily as I'm accustomed to of Japanese laminated steels I'm used to working with. I had to beat on it hard with a brass mallet on wood stump, really hard. I did finally get it to straighten.
7) grain structure of the core appeared very fine.
8) the rockwell hardness of the core seemed high
9) Im certain I cracked the core during straightening, I'm not surprised, I hit it pretty hard.
added -
I ground the blade down until the cracks were gone leaving me with a 9 1/4" long blade, becoming a long petty/sujihiki.
my personal conclusions for me based on my working with laminated steel with Hitachi core.
1) this steel is harder to sharpen, not hard to sharpen, just harder than Hitachi white or other simple carbon steels (with Japanese waterstones)
2) I used alot more belts to grind
3) the edge is very sharp, super scary sharp
4) I'm excited to use this tonight on chicken and carrots
5) I didn't like the etched finish and will go with a kasumi style finish
6) I think we used too thick of a core and would advise a thinner core in the future of about 33% total thickness
Gilbert's bar
water quench
Gilbert M
Gilbert had ordered some and said he was thinking about making some san mai with it.
While I'm a big user of laminated steels, I've only made it once and I wanted more exposure to it. Gilbert has done some san mai work so I jumped at the chance.
We were unable to procure 410 ss cladding stock in time so we went with AEB-L as it was readily available and inexpensive. So here is what we did and what I learned so far. I'm no expert, I'm just conveying what we/I did,
we used two bars of 26C3, .078 thck, one bar of aeb-l clad per side
I'm used to the core being about 33% of the total thickness, so this san mai was different for me in that sense.
executive summary, this work was done yesterday Saturday
1) forge weld in controlled forge with ribbon burner - 2250 F
2) material was simple and easy to work with
3) we normalized cycled the steel after drawing it out, my overall bar (core centering) was not as good as Gilberts due to my limited power hammer skills
4) I used my standard process anneal practice of dull cherry red and into ash - result was the steel was hard and not annealed, difficult to saw, difficult to drill, not sure why.... Will have to use different anneal technique.
5) I HT using my standard practice for Hitachi laminated steel, heat in forge, quench in water, flash temper.
6) no problems cracking or delam in water quench
7) The hardened blade would not straighten easily as I'm accustomed to of Japanese laminated steels I'm used to working with. I had to beat on it hard with a brass mallet on wood stump, really hard. I did finally get it to straighten.
7) grain structure of the core appeared very fine.
8) the rockwell hardness of the core seemed high
9) Im certain I cracked the core during straightening, I'm not surprised, I hit it pretty hard.
added -
I ground the blade down until the cracks were gone leaving me with a 9 1/4" long blade, becoming a long petty/sujihiki.
my personal conclusions for me based on my working with laminated steel with Hitachi core.
1) this steel is harder to sharpen, not hard to sharpen, just harder than Hitachi white or other simple carbon steels (with Japanese waterstones)
2) I used alot more belts to grind
3) the edge is very sharp, super scary sharp
4) I'm excited to use this tonight on chicken and carrots
5) I didn't like the etched finish and will go with a kasumi style finish
6) I think we used too thick of a core and would advise a thinner core in the future of about 33% total thickness
Gilbert's bar
water quench
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