My hamon process WIP(pic heavy)

K

Kevin Powers

Joined
Jul 23, 2015
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411
There's a million different ways to differentially heat treat a blade. Not claiming to even be good at doing it but I feel like sharing how I do things whether it be good, bad, or working like a mule. There will be a lot of pics and even a couple YouTube videos. I was going to wait until the knife was completed to post this but I like WIP's that unfold as you watch them, and frankly, I'm trying to stay organized with it. So here we go.
I started out with a profile drawn out on the steel and used my portaband to profile. Not very exciting stuff.
Here's the profile.
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I then sharpie and scribe. You'll notice the scribe marks are pretty far apart. I do it this way so I can go through thermal cycles, and then clean up decarb, and still have an edge that's thick enough for HT.
The way I scribe is I lay the blade on my granite block and use a transfer punch that is either thicker or thinner than the blade. In this case it was the first one I grabbed. It resulted in about .065" lines.
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Roughed bevels, the stock is 1/4" W2 from Aldo and so its a lot of work getting the bevels in and roughed with a lot of distal taper.
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Time for thermal cycling. I didn't wrap this one with foil as the last time I did I had issues with the knife hardening. I have reason to believe it was because I couldn't watch the heat in the knife. Also with this knife I did things a little different during thermal cycling by adding a quench in 2 times. Honestly I don't know why but I just felt like doing it.
The regimen was:
1650, thorough soak, then pulled it out and cooled to black.
1525 soak, out to black, quenched in my spark bucket.
1450 soak, out to black
1400 soak, out to black, quench in spark bucket.
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Now it was time to cleanup and clay.
I started by wire wheeling the decarb off. When thermal cycling I don't knock off the scale so I don't continually get more scale with each cycle. The scale is not all that thick, but I would rather save belts.
After wire wheeling. And a touch on the flats on my disc, had to remind myself to take the pic as I was already disc sanding the flats and bevels.
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All cleaned up.
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Now I suck at applying clay. I just can't paint fine details like other makers. I'm going to try and use a paint knife next time. I've never had a hamon follow the clay exactly so I kinda just paint it on there in whatever pattern I feel like at the time. The one thing I do, is paint it on very thin in very light coats. You don't need big ole globs of clay on here. Really... Quit globbing it on.
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1480*F soak for 10 mins after the kiln recovers.
Into non-heated parks 50 (75* yesterday) for a count of 2, out for a count of 2, back in for about 15 seconds or so.
Check the edge with a file, hard as all getout.
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Time to go to the grinder. See what we got.
This is the most important part in hamon development in my opinion. I feel like people don't grind near as much as they need to. You can't just do a couple swipes on the grinder and call it good. You have to GRIND!!! Grind all this crap off, I call it 3D crap, it's also called gator skin, or decarb. It's all got to go until you have a uniform surface.
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If you leave any of it on it will etch much faster than your hamon and look like crap. This stuff is what is blocking all the activity and ashi that you're wanting. It's literally under there, you just aren't grinding enough.
 
Right on Kevin, WIPs are my favorite. Couple questions on the way you do things. Do you mix your refactory cement with water, or do you use vinegar to avoid shrinkage when drying? Second, do you let the clay completely dry before putting it in the kiln?

Juan
 
So remember back when I said that I've never had a hamon follow my clay... Well crap it followed it this time and now I got a goofy pattern on a blade.
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On the belt you can hog off all the decarb and then I go to the disc to keep the bevels flat and it really starts to show the pattern.
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While I decide if I'm going to re-clay and quench, I grind the clips. The last few knives I've been setting up rests to grind clips and they never work like I want so I've been freehanding them the last few knives and I really like it.
[video=youtube_share;ajh2oNSCdkQ]http://youtu.be/ajh2oNSCdkQ[/video]
This is where we're at today. This will be my first time sharpening a clip.
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While I was thermal cycling I worked on the guard. I've never done a micarta or g10 guard before so it's the whole reason I even started this knife. I'm not sure what I'm using for handle material but I'm using black linen as a guard.
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AZsmith said:
Right on Kevin, WIPs are my favorite. Couple questions on the way you do things. Do you mix your refactory cement with water, or do you use vinegar to avoid shrinkage when drying? Second, do you let the clay completely dry before putting it in the kiln?

Juan
Click to expand...

I'm using "kiln wash" that was purchased from the local ceramics store. I'm pretty sure it's just satanite. It's heavily diluted with water to be creamy like. It shrinks and lifts a little while drying and that's why I do a couple few coats. It sets it back down and sticks. I go right into the preheated oven with it.
 
I decided to re-clay and quench. The hamon is now incredibly small just up near the spine. Didn't follow the clay at all. I don't technically like it either but I can't redo the hamon another time as the blade will get too small. I came up with a pretty decent way to mix the separated clay.
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Waffle fries
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It looks as if there might be long ashi lines running down towards the edge which would be cool as I've not really had that before. We will see when it all turns up.
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I'll try to get more done this afternoon but I've got the blade clamped up and in the temper oven for its first cycle at 450
 
Thanks! Great WIP. Have you tried covering the whole blade with a very thin coat of clay and then put thicker clay where you want the pattern? I am looking forward to your final result.
 
Tom Lewis said:
Thanks! Great WIP. Have you tried covering the whole blade with a very thin coat of clay and then put thicker clay where you want the pattern? I am looking forward to your final result.
Click to expand...

No, I have not. I know some people do this, however I have not tried it.
 
I am far from a hamon expert. Using rutlands cement I covered one blade with a thin coat and then a thicker coat where I wanted the hamon. The other blade I just put the cement where I wanted the hamon. The blade covered with a thin coat turned out better.
Thanks for your WIP, I look forward to seeing the rest of it.
 
Dirty 600 grit preview, no etch make sure you select 720P
[video=youtube_share;xWvY0MdgZaU]http://youtu.be/xWvY0MdgZaU[/video]
 
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Kevin, you might enjoy this thread. I know I did, and learned a lot. There is some great discussion towards the end, in the last few pages iirc.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1086516-The-Mystique-of-the-Hamon

I like the activity in your hamon. I try to get the blade 1/3 hardened, 2/3 not. That seems to be the traditional esthetics.

Isn't this W2 great for this? The responsiveness and activity blows me away. A knowledgeable metallurgist told me the vanadium in the W2 compared to the W1 or 1095 causes that difference.
 
Willie71 said:
Kevin, you might enjoy this thread. I know I did, and learned a lot. There is some great discussion towards the end, in the last few pages iirc.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1086516-The-Mystique-of-the-Hamon

I like the activity in your hamon. I try to get the blade 1/3 hardened, 2/3 not. That seems to be the traditional esthetics.

Isn't this W2 great for this? The responsiveness and activity blows me away. A knowledgeable metallurgist told me the vanadium in the W2 compared to the W1 or 1095 causes that difference.
Click to expand...

When I redid the quench it stayed up high, I don't care for it much but it is what it is. It's more like temper dots lol. I have read through that thread more times than I care to admit haha. I just wish I knew how people can get the hamon to follow the clay so close. Like the Hanson on the first page. It boggles my mind. I just keep chasing it trying to learn with each new one. The only problem is it makes me not want to finish any of them. Yes, this is W2 and my 2nd knife using this steel.
 
Try normalizing and thermal cycling. I austentize at 1460, rather than 1480. You only need a 3-5 min soak depending on blade thickness after setting up the steel. Interrupting the quench helps as well. 3 seconds in, 3 seconds out, then quench to 400f. I can "feel" the time to pull the steel out through the tongs. I think it's the collapse of the vapour jacket + 0.5 seconds. With under 1/8" blades I interrupt twice. I get better activity that way. Try 1450 as well, or even 1440. Each kiln reads a bit different. Find your sweet spot.
 
Willie71 said:
Try normalizing and thermal cycling. I austentize at 1460, rather than 1480. You only need a 3-5 min soak depending on blade thickness after setting up the steel. Interrupting the quench helps as well. 3 seconds in, 3 seconds out, then quench to 400f. I can "feel" the time to pull the steel out through the tongs. I think it's the collapse of the vapour jacket + 0.5 seconds. With under 1/8" blades I interrupt twice. I get better activity that way. Try 1450 as well, or even 1440. Each kiln reads a bit different. Find your sweet spot.
Click to expand...
Yeah I am thermal cycling the blade. However, I did not redo the thermal cycle, just requenched this blade. I try new techniques with each new blade. Prior to redoing the hamon on this blade it followed the clay pretty well. I have no idea how it did that as it's the first time that has ever happened to me.

At any rate, I have like 6 knives going at the same time right now. I should be able to start the etch and polish cycles tomorrow. I started filing the guard today but didn't get far enough on it to take pics.
 
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