Little Vest Bowie- Koa and W2 w/ 'No Clay' hamon...

J. Doyle

J. Doyle

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Feb 17, 2008
Messages
8,205
Got this standing order finished just barely in time for Christmas. :). Had a little trouble with the lighting on this one for some reason. Probably taking them at midnight last night. :D Hope the pics turn out okay though.

Specs:
Hand forged from W2
11 3/8" overall, 6 1/2" blade, .230" thick at the ricasso
Full distal taper, clip is just a light stoning away from being sharp
Rounded spine and ricasso edge
Black g-10 guard and fittings
Stabilized Koa handle

All comments and discussion welcome.














The hamon was achieved with time/temp control of my salts with no clay used.

My hat is off to you photographers that can show the knife clearly and have a good image of the hamon in one image. I certainly can't. I can't even capture all the activity in the hamon in one image. Here's a couple pics of finishing the blade that show how much is really there.





 
she's a beauty, John. I'm liking the understated fittings.
No doubt also this is a very slightly blade heavy, but super lightweight knife, which is to say- my kind of knife :)
 
Love it, John. I'm digging the blacked out furniture you've been doing lately.
 
Very nice, sleek little knife. You bring out the hamon better than you suggest. Another fine detail.
 
John, Fantastic knife. I think you have this " No Clay " thing figured out :thumbup:


Thanks for sharing

Bing
 
It is a real beauty!!

John, if you don't mind i have a question about the whole clayless hamon procedure.
You used salts, so i assume the blade would have been fully austenitized, regardless the temperature used; What is your oil quench? If it were park's50 then it should have been able to complete transform the martensite given the blade thickness, so i wonder why and how you got that incredible "natural" hamon?
 
stezann said:
It is a real beauty!!

John, if you don't mind i have a question about the whole clayless hamon procedure.
You used salts, so i assume the blade would have been fully austenitized, regardless the temperature used; What is your oil quench? If it were park's50 then it should have been able to complete transform the martensite given the blade thickness, so i wonder why and how you got that incredible "natural" hamon?
Click to expand...


I'm sure John will be able to give a more detailed description of how it works, but I believe the key is both time and temp. When the blade is put into the salts, the steel starts going up to the temp of the salts. Just like in a forge, the thinner portions of the blade are going to reach austenizing temperature more quickly than the thicker. But unlike the forge environment, those thinner sections won't over heat in the salt bath while waiting for the thicker portions to get up to the same temp. Finding that balance of the right amount of time for the edge to reach austenizing temp but not the whole blade is where John seems to have really nailed it :).


Jeremy
 
gudspelr said:
I'm sure John will be able to give a more detailed description of how it works, but I believe the key is both time and temp. When the blade is put into the salts, the steel starts going up to the temp of the salts. Just like in a forge, the thinner portions of the blade are going to reach austenizing temperature more quickly than the thicker. But unlike the forge environment, those thinner sections won't over heat in the salt bath while waiting for the thicker portions to get up to the same temp. Finding that balance of the right amount of time for the edge to reach austenizing temp but not the whole blade is where John seems to have really nailed it :).


Jeremy
Click to expand...


The other way to do it is get the whole blade up to an austentizing temp at the low end of the scale, quench, and interrupt the quench so not enough heat is pulled from the thicker parts of the blade, while hardening the edge, tip, and parts if the spine. Different than an edge quench, as the martensite will form in whisps and clouds throughout the steel giving the cloudy look so desired. This is the method I use, and am finishing a knife with very similar profile to this one right now.
 
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