Is this a hamon?

fast14riot

fast14riot

Joined
Oct 27, 2010
Messages
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Or is it he result of some other magical metalurgical mystery? Its on a hatchet I am cleaning up and am hand sanding at 400# right now when this showed up. Was this edge quenched? Or is this just a temper line? I have never held a knife with a hamon and know only very little about the process of creating one. If it is I think I would like to try to bring it out with some etching and polishing.

The pic isn't the best, but its the one where you can see it the best.

2011-06-29141250.jpg


What do you think?


-Xander
 
I'd say it is.

Doesn't look like an edge quench. Probably a shallow hardening steel and the thicker section didn't harden.
 
Boy you guys sure are getting me all excited about hand sanding again! I was getting burned out for the day, but the idea that this thing could be stellar looking has given me new motivation! I sure hope the consensus on here is in favor of a hamon.


-Xander
 
~~Maybe you worked a hamon in while you hand worked the blade. That and the fact that it was probably well used and slowly acquired one over the years and the polishing brought it out. That or you're uncovering a different metal welded to it for the blade. It could also be a metal flaw from a layer that wasn't hammer welded enough.
Could be something else though.
 
--J

I will be the first to admit I don't know much about the process, but as I understand it a hamon cannot be formed by work hardening. It is a boundry line of two different hardness' and crystalin structures. I doubt I can work harden a blade with my bare hands as well. This blade is a single steel, not laminated. It is also of modern manufacture, less that 10 years old and in good usable shape when I bought it.

Again I don't know much about a hamon, but these are my understandings.


-Xander
 
Hopefully a member with more metalurgical experience will chime in, I'm curious too. I thought you could work a hamon in with polishing stones, seems to me I've read something along those lines with Japanese sword makers working through different grades until "they saw the dragons in the steel" or something like that.
 
I worked on a much older ax 1960's and discovered the same phenomonom I chauked it up to the use of two different steels.
 
--J
You probably heard correctly regarding the Japanese sword makers, because IIRC in certain steels it takes a considerable amount of polishing to even be able to see the hamon. But they were there before the polishing revealed them. Someone correct me if I'm wrong....
 
Edge

That is what I understand. The polishing makes the boundry much more visable, but it is still a boundry between two different structures of the same steel.


-Xander
 
Xander, I think it is. I had a very similar hamon on my damascus putter where the hosel and heel hardened and the face didn't. It would make sense that the thicker part of the hatchet did the same thing and didn't harden while the edge did.
 
I'm gonna have to throw my vote in with Don on this one.

That might be cool after some more sanding and etching...
 
Well after sanding some more on the other side there sure is some nice activity in it. I think this is safe to call a hamon, well at least it has the potential to be one if I do my part! There is a significant difference in hardness on either side. I have seen axes with finite temper lines and they are just straight lines, but I have never seen anything like this, although I am very new to axes and the like.

This is gonna be interesting to develope. I will update as I go along.


-Xander
 
This whole thread was settled within the first few replies.... lol.

Work that baby up, Xander!
 
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