Am I doing this right (quenching)?

Just by watching the video, it almost looks like the blade is too hot. It is like bright yellow hot, usually mine are more of an orange. But I don't know, maybe it's just the room is so dark.
 
Did you let the clay coating dry prior to heating it? It does seem like the blade was too hot... but it is hard to judge by video. I don't you clay, but I have seen done by a pro many times and it looked more uniform than yours. What is your coating process?
 
Heat up your forge prior to heat treating, then clay up your blade and put it in the cooling forge when the forge is at a hot oven temp to dry the clay slowly. Once its dry fire up the forge and bring the blade up to temp as slowly as you can. I use charcoal and if you dont dry out the clay and take it up to temp slowly youl knock off the clay in the forge.

It also looks like your a little hot as the other guys said. Keep checking the blade when your heating it. When a magnet stops sticking to it get it a little hotter, say a few shades brighter, thats when your at the right temp to quench.

May also help if your bring your oil closer to your forge. Nothing worse than dropping a 1400 degree piece of steel into your shoe.

Jamie
 
Just a couple of questions: What type of steel? and How hot was the steel at quench? Not alot of info in the video, but it looked cool.
 
Hi, I see how I should have left the clay dry more before putting it in the forge, thanks for the tip. Next time I'll heat it up slowly too. The steel is 1080. The oil was warmed-up to about 150F. I probably left the blade in too long, as I was messing-up with my camera.. As for the coating process, well, I mixed satanite with water to about the consistency of peanut butter, then slapped it on the back of the blade. Thickness was from about 1/8 to 1/4'' on the spine. I left the very back of the blade uncoated. When the blade was cool enough to hold, and after scraping off the clay, I tempered 1:30 at 450F. I will do that one more time..
 
Read this:

http://www.kosterknives.com/santoku-hamon.htm

And watch the videos.

;)



I have heat-treated easily over 100 knives this way and this is the best way I've found to do it. I've had the most 'repeatable' success with this version. You should probably note that I am impatient and don't care to wrap my blade with wire, nor do I wait for the clay to dry. If you let it dry, you have to use wire to hold it in place....so why let it dry?

Also keep in mind that the hamon line does not 'follow' the clay. You'll have to experiment with this if you want something specific....or just take whatever you get.

Dan
 
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