A Blade from Scratch.. A Peak into a Process (TEST blade added)

Thanks Randy. I'm glad you like both of them. I worked really hard to make them as exact as possible. :-)
 
Here is another picture of the kiridashi after re-quenching it. I wasn't satisfied with how it was holding an edge and the fact that I wasn't getting a hamon. It turns out that I used too much clay and I didn't get full hardness. So here it is after re-quenching, water stone polishing and long etch in vinegar. You can now see the shadow of the hamon and it really skates a file now:

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And here is the forged tanto:

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Huge disappointment. I was normalizing the tanto and preparing for the quench when a balloon emerged right in the middle of the blade. Another pocket that didn't reveal itself during forging for some reason.

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So now I have two kwaikens:

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:-(
 
That's a shame on the big one but a nice start on the littler ones.
I have a wrap around 'hawk with a bubble in it, trapped flux I guess.
I think the aerodynamics of the bubble improved my throwing.
 
Pity about the big one - I was really looking forward to seeing the end result. those two kwaikens looks really nice, though.
 
Thanks for the peek. Wish i could be a fly on the wall in your shop. Very cool. It will turn out.
 
Thanks folks...

As is typical of the Japanese.. they have a word for that blister: fukare. I was just speaking with a nihonto maker friend of mine and apparently a Japanese smith.. when working with tamagahane.. will cold strike the sword 100 strikes after forging listening and feeling for these 'fukare' before proceeding with the quench.

I'm kind of excited about the little kwaikens though.. particularly after discovering Anders Hogstrom's work.
 
Well I'm beginning to assemble the first blade. I've decided that I will treat each blade differently. One will be finished so that the grain pattern is emphasized and one will be finished for the hamon. I've very recently learned that in low contrast, low alloy pattern welded steels, they each require very different methods. For the hamon, if you use too aggressive of an etchant then everything etches in a very similar way since you don't have the manganese and nickel to highlight differences. To show the hamon you have to use very light etchants.. vinegar versus ferric... and rely on the differences that emerge in scratch resistance between hard and soft steel. Traditional Japanese water stones are perfect for this. I don't have real ones, but I do have a couple synthetic.. an 800 and 1000. Normally when I clay quench a blade, I can do a quick grind to 220 and a quick etch. NOTHING shows at all with this stuff. So I had to do a machine polish to 600 and then go to an 800 water stone. You can immediately see a dark cloudy/scratchy area representing soft steel and a polished area showing hard steel.

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The other blade will just be heavily etched to show the little bit of contrast between the W2, shear steel, and bloomery steel. In retrospect, I should have folded a couple more times because my pattern is showing quite a bit more bold than I thought it would.

Anyway... the first blade will sport copper habaki, copper seppa, wrought iron spacer and naturally featured American osage orange and have matching wooden scabbard.

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The blade seen in that picture will be heavily etched to show the pattern... but the hamon is showing fairly well due to water stone treatment before etching. So the hamon will show.. but the fine details will be obscured.

I will wait until I get some finer abrasives to polish the hamon on the other blade.
 
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