- Joined
- Feb 4, 1999
- Messages
- 5,786
Well, I made a new knife a couple days ago and did my clay heat treat and it worked great. Smaller blade, so I could actually get a consistent heat. I don't know if it is a great HT metallurgically speaking, but aesthetically it looks great! Here's what I did using 1/8" thick 1084:
1) After knife wasground and finished, I used this fireplace cement gunk from Lowe's. Costs about $2 for a big caulk-gun style tube. You'll find it at Lowe's in the adhesives/caulk section. The stuff is black and initially runs really thin, so pump some out until it it thick like toothpaste.
2) I spread about a 1/8" thick layer of the stuff on both sides of the blade where I wanted the steel to cool slower (so it would stay soft). I just used my finger. I developed a pattern, but just sort of layered it on, as opposed to Scott Fulford's more precise method.
3) Being impatient, I lit a little pencil propane torch and heated the blade slowly to dry the cement. It bubbles up like cookie dough when it gets warm and dries. You probably want to let it dry naturally, but that would ensure better results, so why would I want to do that?
4) Heat the blade to critical temp, then dump the whole thing in hot vegetable oil, swirling.
5) Once it cooled I cracked off what cement I could, then went to bed. Next day after work I tempered two cycles at 375, then finished the steel and etched in ferric chloride. My etching is never that great, so I do a few minutes in the acid, rinse in TSP, and clean. Then I use 0000 steel wool to remove most of the etch and polish a bit.
6) Repeat the few minutes in the acid and re steel-wool.
At this point, I had one beautiful hamon. The etch does good, but the steel wool is the real trick. A good polish would probably also look great, but I have a pretty caveman setup, so the effort isn't worth it for me.
Anyway, the hamon looks really awesome, and basiclaly will allow me to do a Japanese style HT without buying 100 pounds of satanite and all that weird stuff. Couple bucks at Lowe's and I'm set!
1) After knife wasground and finished, I used this fireplace cement gunk from Lowe's. Costs about $2 for a big caulk-gun style tube. You'll find it at Lowe's in the adhesives/caulk section. The stuff is black and initially runs really thin, so pump some out until it it thick like toothpaste.
2) I spread about a 1/8" thick layer of the stuff on both sides of the blade where I wanted the steel to cool slower (so it would stay soft). I just used my finger. I developed a pattern, but just sort of layered it on, as opposed to Scott Fulford's more precise method.
3) Being impatient, I lit a little pencil propane torch and heated the blade slowly to dry the cement. It bubbles up like cookie dough when it gets warm and dries. You probably want to let it dry naturally, but that would ensure better results, so why would I want to do that?
4) Heat the blade to critical temp, then dump the whole thing in hot vegetable oil, swirling.
5) Once it cooled I cracked off what cement I could, then went to bed. Next day after work I tempered two cycles at 375, then finished the steel and etched in ferric chloride. My etching is never that great, so I do a few minutes in the acid, rinse in TSP, and clean. Then I use 0000 steel wool to remove most of the etch and polish a bit.
6) Repeat the few minutes in the acid and re steel-wool.
At this point, I had one beautiful hamon. The etch does good, but the steel wool is the real trick. A good polish would probably also look great, but I have a pretty caveman setup, so the effort isn't worth it for me.
Anyway, the hamon looks really awesome, and basiclaly will allow me to do a Japanese style HT without buying 100 pounds of satanite and all that weird stuff. Couple bucks at Lowe's and I'm set!
