Clay hardening Help please!

[gosh]

Hello all,

I recently picked up some 1/4" W2, Park #50, and some Satanite, and wanted to give this Hamon thing a shot. I have a few questions if anyone could help or point me to a "How to Link"?

Questions:

#1 Is the Clay applied to both sides?

#2 What is the proper amount of clay applied to the surface area? I tried a light coating over the whole blade followed by a thicker 1/4" from center up drawing designs downward with a toothpick, but after polishing everything i didn't see a Hamon, but just a temperline with no real design.

#3 How can I tell when the blade is ready to quench? I had a hard time seeing the color of the blade with my first attempt.

Thanks All. I'm newb to knife making, I appreciate all the help..

g.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Developing a hamon is not a newbie thing most of the time. It takes some experience to get the clay right and the HT has to be from experience or you won't have any idea how hot the blade is.
I would suggest making a good number of regular W2 blades first, and then trying a hamon.

Here is one of many threads on the subject.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/552059-Clay-coating-blades
As you will see there are many ways people do this, but mainly it is a learning process. When you try it out, start with a very simple suguha hamon.

 

[Mike Davis]

I would also suggest you only coat the spine area of the blade. Coating the cutting edge slows the quench on W2 and could result in a cutting edge that doesn't harden properly. Also it will detract from hamon formation, as it is cooling at roughly the same as the spine. Look for descalescence , it will look like shadows dancing across the surface of the steel when hot. That will give you a target to shoot for with out a temperature readout.

 

[silver_pilate]

Taking shots in the dark with heat treating usually doesn't yield the best results, but it's fun trying. I'd recommend doing some forum searches for "hamon" and browse through the results. As Stacy pointed out, there are some really informative threads on the process. A thin wash of satanite over the entire blade can be a good starting point, then a fairly thin area of clay (the consistency of sour cream or milkshakes) applied to the spine and down a certain distance onto the blade. 1/4" is most likely WAY too much, and the reason you don't have a hamon is probably because the blade didn't harden at all. Creating hamon is an art and requires lots of trial and error to get the results you want, and every knife is slightly different depending on the thickness, height, etc.

--nathan