Newbie needs help!!

[Wander151]

This is my 4th homemade knife. It was ground out of 1095 and the micarta handle was epoxied and pinned with brass. The blade was rough ground, the spine coated in furnace cement and allowed to dry. For heat treatment, I heated to non-magnetic and quenched tip down in canola oil. It was tempered 3 times at an hour each at 375 degrees. The blade was cleaned up with a belt sander and then polished with a buffing wheel and black compound. The handle was fitted and then sanded and polished.

I tried several ways to bring out the hamon including lemon juice, vinegar, and ferric chloride. The hamon tended to be removed with further buffing/polishing. This is its current state is after I used horseradish and then slightly buffed it with cloth. Knife is shaving sharp.

Questions:
Have I missed anything major in my process?
Do I need to polish the hamon more to make it look better?
What could I do to make the knife finish look better?

Any suggestions/comments would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks





Update:
I polished this morning with some mothers and got this
on

 

[D.Crawford]

We can't see your result and you leave out some important details, but here are some general suggestions for bringing out a hamon.

-After the blade is properly HT'd, hand sand your blade to a fine grit (at least 600 grit if not 1000 or finer)
-Heat your vinegar, lemon juice, or use diluted fc and add a drop of dish soap to act as a wetting agent to prevent streaking.
-Use a cotton ball (or whatever) to wipe your blade with the solution until you get an even oxidation on the blade (10 minutes or so).
-Now lightly polish the blade with flitz, or 2000 grit paper, or a very fine powder abrasive (I've used Comet and my thumb) and remove the excess oxidation.
You should see your hamon. Repeat as needed until you get your best result. It will look a bit different every time you etch and polish.
-Don't use the buffer, it will smear your temper line.

Hope these help.