etch revealing a pattern in non-damascus?

[Salem Straub]

I wonder if it has to do with the summer and the etchant being warmer and etching harder than during the winter and that is what is making the pattern show up more

You could be on to something there, if your heat treat has not changed since winter. Etchant does act differently given temperature. I keep my etchant tank in the house during the winter, my wife doesn't like it but that's what has to happen.

 

[Joe Calton]

Hey guys, I have an update on this blade.

I went and visited with Ed Fowler for a couple days, and while I was there we spent some time with this blade. did some edge flexes, some rope cutting and then put her in the vice to see what she would do.

We did about 4-6 edge flexes on each side of the blade and there were no chips or rolls. It did about 100 cuts on a 1/2" manilla rope and would still barely shave, It went on to make another 80-90 cuts before I ran out of rope.

then we put her in the vice, and with a 2' torque wrench, it took 29-30 lbs of force to flex her to 90 degrees, the amount of force to bend her stayed within a pound or two to straighten back up, flex to 90 the other way, then straighten, and when she hit about 80 degrees back the original way, the edge cracked up to the top transition line, and then started to turn to go along the transition zone.

Before we did the testing, Chris buffed the old etch away and re-etched the blade to see if the swirls could be coming from my etch, and it came out the same, even went a little darker to see what that did, which is why the blade looks so dark.

Id say that the swirls are cool looking, I still only get them with Aldo's 52100, and Id still like to find out how to make them stay on the blade longer, as they rub off during finishing most of the time. but with the testing it seems that they arent affecting the performance, as she did ok during that.

 

[Ed Fowler]

Banding can create a micro serrated edge that along with fine grain can enhance cut and with proper heat treat result in a great blade. Recent photomicrographs reveal a grain of 15 and finer. It only took Rex and I and others over 20 years to achieve this level of grain refinement and performance. Again if anyone has questions post them up and I will submit them to a metallurgist at the ABANA conference this week, but you have to ask quick because we are leaving for the conference tomorrow morning.