- Joined
- Nov 5, 2016
- Messages
- 378
I’ve been working on a puukko from a billet of AEB-L/52100 san mai I hand forged some while back. Finally got it to the point where I could etch to see what I really had, and the results have some issues. I left it thick for heat treat and took a good bit off post heat treat, so I don’t think this is decarb. Tools it up to 320 on the disc grinder then went back to 240 and back up to 320 hand sanding. Did an acetone clean down, one minute in 4:1 ferric, rubbed down with steel wool, 10 minutes in the ferric. There are two issues. The peak between the primary and top bevel went dark on the AEB-L. This happened on both sides, but for a longer stretch on one side than the other. The bigger concern is what looks like a bunch of little cracks showed up all over the AEB-L. Almost looks like shattered glass. My concern is this just a surface issue, I didn’t finish to a high enough grit or I didn’t really get through the decarb, or is this indicative that I thousands of little stress fractures in the AEB-L from the original forging. Here is a pic of the worse side. Hard to get a good picture of the little cracks. Any thoughts? Sand down and try again or a month of work in the bin?
