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Recommendation? Hamon, yes or no?

Joshua Fisher

Joshua Fisher

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Mar 27, 2018
Messages
1,513
https://imgur.com/a/0QTc3


I’m new to making knives and I send my blades out to be heat treated this is a test blade that came back, it is 1095 please ignore any stray scratches that showed up after the etch, this was just a test blade I’ve been trying a number of things on so I know I needed the sand more the question is after I pulled it out of the etch, using white vinegar with a little dish soap added overnight, it looks like a temper line has shown up which is neat but I’m not sure if it’s that or if somehow it wasn’t cleaned enough? The pattern goes through to the other side as well. Half way through etching I scrubbed the blade with 0000 steel wool and again after the second half
 
Looks like an auto hamon. Because 1095 requires an extremely fast quench, it wont harden even in #50 (or water for that matter) if it gets very thick. I can't see the spine of the knife to judge thickness, but that is likely what happened here. Either it is so thick that it won't harden the spine no matter the quenchant, or someone used something a bit slower than #50. My guess is the second. Either way, it happens, I wouldn't worry about it, just know that it can happen with thick sections of 10 series steels, and if it something you want to avoid, ensure the blade is thinner prior to HT or use the fastest quenchant that you can get your hands on (I know you sent it out for HT).
 
It looks like it has texture to it. How was it heat treated? Did you grind after heat treat? Was the spine clayed?

I’m thinking it’s decarb.
 
On second examination, I am with Josh. It may well be decarb. The texture plus the area at the spine that looks free of texture looks like decarb.
 
I sent it out for heat treating but I know it went through thermal cycling and I’m pretty sure it had a anti scale compound applied to the blade, I did grind post ht, edge thickness started at .040 and finished ground after ht to .015 roughly, it did sit in a vinegar solution for a solid 8 hours, in person it looks like pitting like you would see from rust so my thought was just too much time in the etch but I could be wrong. The steel was .187 thick to begin with so for that small of a knife it’s pretty thick at the spine even with a distal taper
 
Typically how deep can one expect decarb to go? If that is the case grinding more from the middle and spine should get through it correct?
 
At that point, it could go either way I suppose. I definitely could see a 3/16 spine not through hardening with anti scale applied.
 
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