Interesting Hardening Line

Joined
Apr 5, 2000
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Well, it's pouring rain here and I'm waiting on several massive shipments of handle material before I go any further, so I thought I'd take and post a few pics.

This is a bowie I am working on, I forged the blade from w2, 8", .25" at the spine, moderate taper. I'm planning on a plate guard and ferrule and sculpted buckeye burl for the handle.

The hardening line on this piece is pretty interesting; I think my notes on HT'ing w2 are becoming more precise and accurate...it only took about thirty tries :). There are bands and "clouds" throughout the blade and a mirror image hardening line.

I was planning on bringing this piece to Blade, but I think I'll toss it up on the for sale section when I'm done. I am planning on six or seven pieces for blade and I think if I start working this early I'll swamp the table :).

~I may have to cut the tang down a little; it's almost 5" long...

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Matt
 
The hardening line on that is really cool, almost looks like smoke on the blade. That is a pretty long tang but hay it never hurts to be longer than shorter you can always take some off lol. Very nice work.
 
Matt,
That is a very interesting hamon/temper line and another great blade! :thumbup:
I really dig your knives and that buckeye burl should make a beautiful handle.
Hopin' you do put it up in the for sale section. :D
Doug Castor
 
Matt,it looks like you have another beauty in the works.I'll be looking forward to seeing the completed piece too.
 
Matts got one goin for me now with around a 10X2 inch blade maybe a tad shorter, Aslo with a buckeye handle. Should be a fantastic lookin piece when its all done.
 
Nice hamon! Ive been playing with hamons and clay coating alot lately....I think I have figured out a little trick that seems to result in some very, very weird hamons, and ive yet to take it to the next step to blow them out of the water and I cant get it to happen every time. If you clay coat, then bring the entire thing to critical (including clay), then flip the blade and slightly overheat the clay (NOT the edge...gotta be carful and watch the colors) for a few seconds, then edge quench up to the highest dip in the clay, some very odd things happen. You get a main transition line from the clay, but then as you continue to slice the blade through the oil, that still glowing clay leeches heat down into the hamon, causing tons of odd misty details as oil migrates up under the clay and heat migrates down from the spine.....Ive noticed this three times now, all with the same process...once I nail it and can reproduce, I will post the whole process. Perhaps we can share notes!
 
Thanks for the tip Tik. Actually, this is just a hardening line; no clay. People look at me like I'm crazy when I tell them you don't need clay to get activity.

I think Anders Hogstrom uses your technique in his knives and gets very interesting results.
 
I'm taking a little break and thought I'd post an update. This gives you an idea of how I do my handles now; I profile the spine last.

Here's a shot of a little guy I'm working on too :).

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Matt
 
Lookin' good Matt. Love that hamon, and that's a nice piece of buckeye as well. So what are yo going to attach that sweet stag carver to?

Roger
 
Very nice stuff -- love those edge-quenched blades with that ashi. I've yet to achieve the results that you're getting with your technique, but I'm still trying. :)
 
Roger, I'll be putting the carver on a bowie that's destined for the blade show. I picked up quite a bit of wood over the last week, I was lucky enough to score a good supply of really nice buckeye. In fact, I just got an incredible block of amboyna burl today.

Burch, keep lowering the temperature of the blade and increasing the temp of the quench. I've only been able to get the "ashi" quench with w1, w2, 1095, and 1065. I think Matt Lamey has been getting really consistent results with 1075.
 
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