Black & Tan Tanto (#1 for '05!)

[Chiro75]

Ground this knife a few years ago, then botched the heat treat! Thanks to Laredo7mm we were able to resurrect it in his forge and this is the finished product. The Black & Tan is 10.5" OAL with a 5.25" blade. 1/8" thick 1084 with a fully convex ground blade on both sides. Clay heat treated and lightly etched. Handle is hemp twine with cotton cord wrap, all epoxy-soaked. I am new to using epoxy this way and it got globbed on a bit, so I would call this a "user-grade" finish. Blade is finished to 1500 grit. Everything on this piece was done with hand tools, files, etc.

Enjoy the pics! Inquiries welcome.

 

[S2nd]

NICE. I can't tell... what got botched on the heat treatment? It looks like it took a really nice hamon.

 

[Laredo7mm]

Nice, I like it. I am glad we were able to get a good hamon line in here for you. I was a bit worried since everything did not go well that day, but just as a side note, I got that billet we started to weld up just fine and have been using it im my latest folders.

But again, that is really cool looking and I was glad to be able to help you out. Now we just need to ry it in the salt pot when Daniel gets those other blades done.

 

[Chiro75]

S2nd, there is nothing wrong with the heat treatment here, but when I ground the blade a few years ago I was unable to get the entire blade to critical temp, so when I quenched just about 2 inches of it got hardened. Using Sean's forge and molten salts we normalized it and started over, which is what you see in these pics.

 

[TOB9595]

Well done! I like the line of the blade and the hamon.
The wrap looks well done in spite of the heavy epoxy.

Seems that soaking of epoxy is a big experience curve too. Most great wrappers, that I know, also started off with a bit too much soak.
Tom