David I think I know what has happened ,
i have made a knife or two with this stuff
your steel is just fine and after you consider a few thing it will be clear to you why this can happen
, im thinking that the patteren is there is just faint or black lines is this the case ?
if so what has happened is the decarb seams have had carbon migrated back in the iron welding seams not uncommon
let me try to explain why this will happen , while welding you will cause the outside services to decarb due to heat --air --and when at this heats the carbon moves to the inside of the strand carbon attracts carbon so the cells are holding some of the carbon other carbon lost to open air .
all is well decarb seams will look fine and silvery 000(iron)
what you have done is allowed the steel to hold at a critical temp for a longer time than was nessery at some point after welding
. prolonged heats will cause carbon migration and carbon will move back in the decarbed area causing the etch to look black or black .
at a certain temp carbon moves the longer that temp is held the more uniformed the migration is ,
we do this all the time to lose decarb seams in mosaics to to get ride of the last weld seam we allow it to soak loner than normal but timing is a consideration -- unlike pattern welded steel of different colors --alloy differences I cable is of the same steel or alloy so temp can have an effect on outcome ,migration is near complete ====but there id light at the end -- if you can detect a dark line where you think should be silver all is fine
just allow the etch to cut deeper and the lines will be showing as black instead of silver carbon has flooded the seam and will show up black
I like this look also and as for your blade being inferior is not the case
carbon has moved nothing wrong with that at all
it, the next time if im Wright is to not allow long periods of temp over critical
sorry to talk so long a time to tell you you over heated your steel at some point after welding but I feel its best to understand not just fix.
hope this helps the only concern is if you did anything to reduce grain size after thes high temp
