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Anybody want to guess what this is?

Phillip Patton

Phillip Patton

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Jul 25, 2005
Messages
5,397
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OK........... A WAG........... W-pattern from 1080 and 15N20.

What do I win?????? :D

Whatever it is, it looks good.

Robet
 
Good guesses!
It's regular old O1. Not sure why the pattern is there. Anybody have an idea?
 
Well I'll say this much- the fixed blade I bought from Brian Goode got its acid etch lightened up a lot when I used White Lightning on it, not knowing how extreme its microabrasive properties were. The result was that the etching had faded and all my nice patinas disappeared :grumpy: ;) So I mixed up a 3:1 FC solution and used a toothbrush to apply the ferric solution because I didn't want to drop it into a bath as it has scales that aren't in need of ruining. It came out perfectly, but the bristles left some really cool little wave patterns. Could something similar have happened here? :confused: The etched waves on mine are much smaller and less pronounced that those pictured, but I must say they're really cool and add a nice effect to the knife- kind of like damascus but it's just trusty 0-1. I think the pattern in the picture looks really neat :thumbup: :cool:
 
It's called alloy banding but I've never seen this much coverage or contrast. It's usually caused from multiple thermal cycles in forging and or normalizing. I just heat treated and ground a large blade from 1065 and it shows a good bit of this also. I've also seen this in W2 but not often in 01, it is very cool though.
 
Phillip did you have to etch to bring the pattern out , ( the "alloy banding" ) or did it just appear as you brought the finish up ?? Very Cool looking :thumbup: . Don , are there any down sides to that effect ? And if not , can this be a learned technique (can this be done on purpose) or is it one of those things that sometimes "just happens" through thermal cycling when certain criteria is met ( accidentally ) ??
 
very interesting indeed...what kind of etch did you do?
 
To be more specific, I would guess it's Al Pendray's work since it appears to be a modern piece. (Not sure who else is messing with Wootz right now.)
.... There is that 'Technowootz' stuff Angelsword is using, but since I haven't seen that stuff in person I would hedge on that a bit.
 
David Wesner said:
Phillip did you have to etch to bring the pattern out , ( the "alloy banding" ) or did it just appear as you brought the finish up ?? Very Cool looking :thumbup: . Don , are there any down sides to that effect ? And if not , can this be a learned technique (can this be done on purpose) or is it one of those things that sometimes "just happens" through thermal cycling when certain criteria is met ( accidentally ) ??
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David, looks like Phillip used ferric cloride, you have to etch to show this. There is no down side I know of and yes you can get alloy banding from multipal thermal cycles, I would say 10 or more normalizings without over heating the steel. I have found this phenomenon to be unpredictable but I haven't spent too much time experimenting with this. There has been a couple of good discussions on this over at Don Fogg's forum.
 
JD Smith use to make what he called hammer steel and I'm pretty sure what he was using was O-1. It had alot to do with thermal cycling.
 
It's really W-1 and those are the Ws !!!....I agree it's alloy banding but I don't understand the pattern if it hasn't been forged.
 
my o1 has some of that but not that much. i noticed it when i was filing it. but now afre going up to 600 grit you can see them.
 
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