Hamon Question

that looks good. To take a pic, put a black piece of paper (Or other black flat object) beside the blade to reflect off of. If you want to go down the rabbit hole, I would do 5 more min in white vinegar, then a series of lemon juice etches. It still looks quite polished, and a slightly deeper etch will bring out a bit more contrast. It looks quite good now, but this rabbit hole is deep. This is fine as it is, but you MIGHT get a bit more out of it.

I was thinking the same thing, i can see more and more coming out, and was going to go to the vinegar, but here i am 4 hours deep into just trying to polish out the hamon. It took like 4 days of hand sanding to get it to 1500 LOL
 
Some 1500 grit powdered abrasive and some flitz are things I use a lot. That hamon looks really good, you put quite a bit of work in and it shows!
I feel like 26c3 doesn’t seem to get more activity after more etch/polish cycles like w2 does. It’s kind of there or not there.
 
Some 1500 grit powdered abrasive and some flitz are things I use a lot. That hamon looks really good, you put quite a bit of work in and it shows!
I feel like 26c3 doesn’t seem to get more activity after more etch/polish cycles like w2 does. It’s kind of there or not there.

Much love Josh, means a lot.
 
I was thinking the same thing, i can see more and more coming out, and was going to go to the vinegar, but here i am 4 hours deep into just trying to polish out the hamon. It took like 4 days of hand sanding to get it to 1500 LOL

I go back to the vinegar if the white starts fading. The lemon juice darkens the hardened steel, but can wash out the white a bit. A quick vinegar etch brings it back, then a couple more lemon juice etches. You will get a feel for when to stop. I do about 20 etches when I have a lot of activity. 6-10 on more basic ones. Good job so far. You can just leave it like this and be good too.
 
Some 1500 grit powdered abrasive and some flitz are things I use a lot. That hamon looks really good, you put quite a bit of work in and it shows!
I feel like 26c3 doesn’t seem to get more activity after more etch/polish cycles like w2 does. It’s kind of there or not there.

so similar to hitachi white. It just starts getting a blotchy, pitted look if you go too far.
 
so similar to hitachi white. It just starts getting a blotchy, pitted look if you go too far.

I saw something that like - tape can etch the steel? Is this possible? I need to protect the blade as I fit the guard and handle. Advice for doing that?
 
I saw something that like - tape can etch the steel? Is this possible? I need to protect the blade as I fit the guard and handle. Advice for doing that?

Wrap the blade in paper, then tape the paper. Yes, tape will etch sensitive steels.
 
I hope hitachi white gets more, I just got a couple bars of it in a couple days ago.

Hitachi White is the ultimate hamon steel. I clayed this one, but scraped the clay off to go for a clayless hamon, but there was a little bit of residue on the blade, and this is what I got. I couldn’t capture it in a pic properly.
IMG_1597 by Wjkrywko, on Flickr
 
I have been polishing a 26c3 hamon on a kitchen knife. This steel definitely etched and polishes differently from W2. Two 10 min etches in white vinegar gave a light etch with minimal oxides. I even replaced the white vinegar and started again thinking my vinegar was too old.

I’ll do some experiments and see what I find out. There appears to be a lot of diffuse, cloudy effect, rather than a defined transition line, and there appears to be a bit of alloy banding.
 
Here is some of Aldo's W2. sanded to 1200, warm vinegar etchs and 1500 grit silicon carbide powder
BToXAgp
R2LnQIo.jpg
 
Here is some of Aldo's W2. sanded to 1200, warm vinegar etchs and 1500 grit silicon carbide powder
BToXAgp
R2LnQIo.jpg

this steel is easy to get a decent hamon, and can get spectacular results, like yours. With the chromium and higher manganese, 26c3 is more like 1095 with higher carbon. We have seen plenty of great 1095 hamon over the years, and I have seen a few great 26c3 examples, but the process isn’t quite sorted out with 26c3. The best temp, soak, and polish process isn’t defined yet.
 
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