Cool HT color effect

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

I am working on a san-mai Japanese blade. It is Hitachi white core with low carbon sides. I got it shaped in Shitaji togi and did the HT. These really stunning looking vivid blue colors appeared along the border between the hard and soft steels. They are of course just colors caused by the oil, but they sure look cool. Right now the hard steel is dark, but when done the edge will be polished, so the steel and cladding will only looks slightly different. The knife will have an insanely sharp and low angle edge.

Last shot is with a quick clean up and a fast etch in FC to check if the edge is centered in the san-mai...it came out good.


Traditional purpose would be for seppuku, but I suspect it will be used as a display piece.