Thanks guys.
I wish the video description would stay with the video when you embed it... If you click the "watch on youtube" button, you can see my description.
Sam- I mean quite a few things... Steel chemistry, thermal cycles, geometry of the blade (note the blade had the clip nearly finish ground coming out of the quench... then notice how the hamon wraps around the whole clip?
). The rapid austenitization of the salt bath, the quick/agitated quench into a FAST commercial oil (Park50 of course
), the interuptions... It all plays into what happens in the steel.
You can change each element.... and change the results.
Keep in mind, that doesn't necessarily mean you will like those changes, LMAO.
Eric- There are basically two "no clay" approaches that I have found will work, and yield cool/funky (IMHO) results.
You can do just like you said: soak the blade at austenitizing heat, and interrupt the quench so that the thicker steel can't cool off fast enough to get hard.
You can also heat the blade so that only the area you want to be hard goes into solution, then quench. You have to have a heat source that will allow rapid austenitization though. IMHO, the only way this second method will work, is if you have a salt bath, are very handy with a torch, or an induction forge. I think a kiln simply won't get the rapid heating effect.
A kiln will work just fine for the first method though.
IDK if it was clear enough in the video to see, but this blade was soaked through. When I pulled it from the salt bath, it was the same temp from tip to tail. I ran this one at 1460F.
Just like with clayed up blades... sometimes it doesn't work like you planned, and you gotta cuss and start over.
Personally, I really like this method because, if all goes as planned, it will give you a very organic, natural looking transition area. Some folks HATE it, and feel that it is a pseudo-hamon. I find that to be more of a gut reaction to the fact that it is not traditional, as well as a lack of understanding as to what is really happening when a blade is differentially hardened. The clay does not make the hamon... steel selection, times, temperatures, etc are what make the hamon. The clay just gives little nuances.
Don Fogg told me that ~12 years ago^^^
It took a while to get it through my thick skull. It doesn't help that there are so many WIP/tutorials where guys are posting photos with a butt load of clay, because they think the clay is what determines the result. Salem's recent thread with his wicked key-hole fighter is a prime example of someone doing it RIGHT! Minimal clay... and you can clearly see in his pics, that the hamon he got was gently nudged here and there by his clay lay-out.
Please don't think I'm trying to make it sound like I think I have this crap figured out... because I sure don't!!!
But I do know some of the things that
DON'T work.
