Hamon experts...need some advice

[Blackdirt cowboy]

I tried my hand at making a knife with a hamon today, but it didn’t work out to well. I used 1084 steel from Jantz. I know that’s not the best steel for producing a hamon, but it’s what I had, and I’ve seen a hamon on 1084, so I gave it a shot.

I clayed the spine with a hefty layer of satanite and let it dry. I preheated the oven to 1500° then put the knife in and brought it back up to temperature. One it’s reached temp, I let it soak for about 10 minutes. Then I quenched in parks 50. They clay survived the quench.

After tempering twice at 400°, I ground the knife up to an a30 grit belt, then hit it with a scotchbrite belt to blend it all in. Next, I etched the blade in a 3:1 solution of ferric chloride. 20 minutes in the etch, rinsed of, hit it with steel wool, then repeated the process again. To my disappointment, there is no evidence of a hamon. I like the etched finish I got, so it’s not a total loss at all, but it’s not what I was going for.

So my question is, what went wrong? Did I do something wrong, or did it fail just because it was 1084 steel? Here’s a pic to show the results.

 

[Willie71]

Your hamon is there. It’s very close to the edge at the heel, and it looks like the belly isn’t hardened. Too much heat, and probably too much clay, as that is the most common mistake. 1/16” thick MAX. 1460-1475 with 1084. Try W2, 1095, or 26c3 instead.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

+ on Warren's advice.

Much less clay ( and not so far down)
Lower heat.

Also:
Too concentrated FC. Try 5: 1 or even 10:1, with shorter soaks.
Clean off lightly with the steel wool and then clean only the hardened steel below the hamon with a powdered or paste compound (Flitz, or one of the many powdered oxides use in shiagi togi))

 

[Blackdirt cowboy]

Thanks for the tips. The blade did get hard all the way along the edge. Next time I’ll try less clay and less heat and also a steel more conducive to producing a hamon. I probably had a 3/16” layer of clay on the blade and had it halfway down from the spine to the edge. Also, my ferric chloride mixture was 4oz of powder dissolved into a quart of distilled water. I can water that down more as well.