Banding in my Hamon - What is this? please help - see pic

R

reedje777

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Sep 27, 2011
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The pictures below are the same blade, one is cropped and enhanced to see the banding. Its Aldo's 1084 3/16". It's a pretty beefy knife. It's OAL is around 13" just for size reference. I HT in a propane oven with a digital thermocouple. I use a thin clay slip to minimize decarb and I quench in Parks 50.

What is the banding/horizontal striping? It's not sanding marks, those are perpendicular.

IMG_3073.JPG

IMG_3073-2.jpg


Any thoughts would be appreciated.
 
1084 can't make a hamon, it hardens too deeply. Those look like alloy banding from over heating or excessive thermal cycling. But the enhanced photo isn't showing up for me, so its tough to tell on my phone.


-Xander
 
Xander, you definitely can make hamon with 1084. It may not have the activity and detail of 1095 or W2, but it can and does produce a transition line if hardened and polished correctly.

My first though was too long of an etch as well. Did you etch by dipping the blade vertically? Bubble tracks?

--nathan
 
It looks to me like you didn't get all the decarb off. It will run in a pattern like that sometimes. I'd try grinding it a bit more and see if that starts cleaning it up.
 
I don't know if you have a hamon or not. I would sand the blade smooth to 400 grit and see if all that goes away. Start at 120 grit and take a good layer off to start, then go up to 220, 400. After that, etch for 60 seconds to see what still shows.
 
I took it down to 400 belt finish before my etch (2 10-sec dips in 1:4 ferric) but I didn't sand heavily to remove decarb. I'll try removing more then clean it up and try to re-etch. So is the majority opinion that that banding is just areas where the blade decarbed more than others?
 
I did a few blades in 1084 and got the same thing as you at low grit finishing. After an A45 and A60 Gator and a fine scotchbrite I had none of that showing any more. I did not try for a hamon and it did not show after final grits.
 
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