More 1084 weirdness

Wow @DevinT was right about the etching. That looks so messed up
 
We know that it is messed up by HRC numbers ;) WHAT we see is question ? Who know how to read what we see :)
 
I feel that this is the case for which you can not find answer in books ........only long experience will solve this .

Willie71 what do you think is happened here ?
 
That goes completely through the the blade?
Maybe deeper than normal? Idk, just trying to learn here too

Is it possible sufficient carbon is not present at all in the real low spots?

I'm asking is all, really lol.
 
i’m not sure if steel could be heated that unevenly for that long to cause that kind of decarb. (With an oxy acetaline torch maybe? But why? I suspect this was cast this way from the mill, and drawn out to make the blotches during rolling. What do I know though? This is beyond me. I linked a previous discussion last page on alloy banding and carbide segregation. The patterning was much finer. This looks more like the issue with Aldo’s bad W2 from 2012 or so, that was recalled.
 
i’m not sure if steel could be heated that unevenly for that long to cause that kind of decarb. (With an oxy acetaline torch maybe? But why? I suspect this was cast this way from the mill, and drawn out to make the blotches during rolling. What do I know though? This is beyond me. I linked a previous discussion last page on alloy banding and carbide segregation. The patterning was much finer. This looks more like the issue with Aldo’s bad W2 from 2012 or so, that was recalled.
That is first I thought when I see result of hardness .Maybe he try to HT with acetaline in open space ? Sometimes people don tell whole story ...........I mean on owner of that steel not on JT.
 
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Ok I was able to get the blade etched tonight before heading inside. It is quite revealing and much weirder then what was shown with the 3000grit surface grind.
(Removed photos to save space)
what’s really interesting is the spots on the back side that match the blotches on the other side. Also it looks like stringers or lines that you would get from etching with a scratch on the surface but there are no scratches on that 3000grit finish.

JT: THANK YOU so much for the etch photos. Those clearly show something is wrong with the metal, just as we suspected.
 
I got the impression from the first post that this didn't come from some ebay seller. Now that there is no question about there being an issue with the steel, care to share where it came from?
 
Only info I have is where my customer said it came from. He said he no longer has the receipt as he cleared out his email. So I cannot verify the exact Origin of this material. I don’t have a reason to doubt what he is telling me but I also don’t have any proof to make claims stick. I learned my lesson after the last thread went south. But what I can say is I have seen this before. I had knives at the end of last year exhibit the same patchy blotches in the same material when surface ground. He lucked out on his as the blotches did not go to the edge. His steel came from NJSB and I think someone mentioned above that this blotchy hardening was an issue with another alloy of steel as well that had to be recalled. So take it for what it’s worth. But let it be known that from the beginning of this thread I was not trying to throw anyone under the bus. My gole was to simply understand what was going on with this steel. Yes I do wish I had hard proof on its origin as I could then contact them and have data to give them as I hate having to return blades to customers in this condition. We have sense added a provider drop down on the website so we will know where the alloy came from before we start working on the blades.
 
JTknives JTknives if he bought it on ebay he can search his buying history there. If he bought it elsewhere they will have a record of his purchase and he can easily ask them.
 
He did not buy it from eBay. It was from a knife steel vender. I just contacted another one of my customers who’s 1084 failed to heat treat and he is sending me one of the blanks back. He has already sent me a copy of his NJSB receipt. So the plan is to polish it and etch and see if it’s the same as this blade.
 
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