After I considered in school yesterday to try myself in Hardening, I got a blow torch from a local supply store and build a little "forge" .
I actually intended to build a one brick forge but that crappy store didn't had them, although they are available in nearly every othe supply store :grumpy:.
So I ended up using some wire and a leftover piece ceramicwool from my big forge that I#m building right now.
So all in all it looks not very sophisticated rather like this :barf:
.
But it works and I hardened a little san mai blade (outer layers are damascus). And it came out good and hard.
And today when I was on my first aid course (needed for my drivers license)
I got the thought of trying diffrentially hardening a blade with a nice Hamon.
I dind't got the thought just out of nowhere , because last evening I watched "The Last Samurai" (two times first in German than in English) and so I was freshly inspired.
I took a little sketch I did in my last biologie lesson and cranked it out of a 4 mm piece of C45 (1045) in about one hour. Wanted to make something small, because of the limited capacity of the Lil' Forge.
Don't kick my but now, I know that C45 isn't that good, especially if I want a small and sharp blade.But it's the only good hamon-producing steel I could get as flat stock.
If I could get an anvil and my stuff set up I would use all that great round stock I've collected over time .
I hardened it in oil (i didn't dare to use water or brine) and the edge is definitely harder than the rest. But A file still bites a bit. But not as nearly as much as in the unhardened flat stock. I guess that's just because of the very low carbon content.
But it should be sharp enough to hold a decent edge. Right now the little sucker is backing ar 190 degrees (Celcius).
When I finished polishing by hand it should look a lot better then after the120 grit belt and a short and ugly try etch.
Looking forward to your comments and thoughts about it (tips and hints by fellow knifemakers are always appreciated ).
Here are the blurry pics (better ones will come when finished):
Marcus
I actually intended to build a one brick forge but that crappy store didn't had them, although they are available in nearly every othe supply store :grumpy:.
So I ended up using some wire and a leftover piece ceramicwool from my big forge that I#m building right now.
So all in all it looks not very sophisticated rather like this :barf:
.But it works and I hardened a little san mai blade (outer layers are damascus). And it came out good and hard.
And today when I was on my first aid course (needed for my drivers license)
I got the thought of trying diffrentially hardening a blade with a nice Hamon.
I dind't got the thought just out of nowhere , because last evening I watched "The Last Samurai" (two times first in German than in English
) and so I was freshly inspired.I took a little sketch I did in my last biologie lesson and cranked it out of a 4 mm piece of C45 (1045) in about one hour. Wanted to make something small, because of the limited capacity of the Lil' Forge
.Don't kick my but now, I know that C45 isn't that good, especially if I want a small and sharp blade.But it's the only good hamon-producing steel I could get as flat stock.
If I could get an anvil and my stuff set up I would use all that great round stock I've collected over time .
I hardened it in oil (i didn't dare to use water or brine) and the edge is definitely harder than the rest. But A file still bites a bit. But not as nearly as much as in the unhardened flat stock. I guess that's just because of the very low carbon content.
But it should be sharp enough to hold a decent edge. Right now the little sucker is backing ar 190 degrees (Celcius).
When I finished polishing by hand it should look a lot better then after the120 grit belt and a short and ugly try etch.
Looking forward to your comments and thoughts about it (tips and hints by fellow knifemakers are always appreciated
). Here are the blurry pics (better ones will come when finished):
Marcus
