O-1 flaking????

Well I tried some vinegar after hand rubbing to 600x. It left some blotches on the blade that I had to sand out and therefore start over. I cleaned with rubbing alcohal and tried again..same thing. Do you guys get blotches using ferric chloride. Also.... I had the blade wrapped in papertowel siiting submerged in white vinegar. I tried to get the blotches out with flitzpaste,flitzspray and..wd40.. Nothin, so I had to sand em out.
Helpppp :confused:
 
I don't wrap in anything when I etch, anything touching the steel can act as an etch stop, and leach the blotches you describe.
 
what you need is a plastic pringles can...the blue ones :)
Fill her up with White Vinigar or Ferric cut 1 part ferric/3 parts water, and hang the blade by the handle holes.....
Vingar etch for?? amount of time? Ferric, about 5 min.....
Scrub with WD-40 and 0000 steel whool after neutralising the acid.
 
blgoode said:
what you need is a plastic pringles can...the blue ones :)
Fill her up with White Vinigar or Ferric cut 1 part ferric/3 parts water, and hang the blade by the handle holes.....
Vingar etch for?? amount of time? Ferric, about 5 min.....
Scrub with WD-40 and 0000 steel whool after neutralising the acid.
Click to expand...

Ok but won't the steel wool muck up the nice hand rubbed finish? Or is it to fine for that.

also..I tried pressing down on a brass rod with the edge of my test piece and nothing chipped, but it did bend the fine edge a bit. Is this normal or should it be rock hard with no noticable marks. I put a fair bit of pressure on it. I'm assuming you hold the edge at an angle slightly off the cutting edge angle ..in this case I probably went 30 degrees and the edge is about 20 degrees. I then hacked through a broom stick and did find some very tiny chips. You have to look very closely but they're there.This was the one with only one quench. Did I overheat?

As far as the etch, I think I better just go get some ferric.

-(I think I may end up with multiple lines on the other test piece that I quenched 3 times and tempered twice :D :D :eek: .)

I hope I'm getting them hot enough. When it's glowing orange it almost looks like I'm moving the heat around...know what I mean??? Does this sound familiar to anyone? It's also nonmagnetic but I read you have to go past that a bit.

They are for sure hardening I just want them to be optimal.
Mike
 
ysforge said:
I don't wrap in anything when I etch, anything touching the steel can act as an etch stop, and leach the blotches you describe.
Click to expand...


Thanks,
I tried it again and submerged the entire thing but I ended up having more unwanted little spots than I could remove. It did work way better though. I think I may have left it in too long because the tiny spots were consistent over the entire blade. Oh well. I sanded and will retry. I got a decent one but too much other crap wouldn't come off. Although it's hard to judge from pictures and that's all I have for a guide to what I want. :D
Mike
 
Show a picture of what they look like.............it may not be the etch but the grain of the steel after HT.............
 
blgoode said:
Show a picture of what they look like.............it may not be the etch but the grain of the steel after HT.............
Click to expand...

Ok so here's 2 pics of the first test blade. I think you're right about the grain structure. Maybe too big?? Sorry about the pic quality My cameras an old 2 mp so I have to use the lowest resolution to get the pics to fit. Look close though and you can see it looks like a fine pattern follows the curve of the blade. I did this with lime juice.
Mike
 
looks good to me :) Do some more testing...
Get a 2x4 and batton the back of the spine...see if the edge dulls fast. If so ...re HT.
 
blgoode said:
looks good to me :) Do some more testing...
Get a 2x4 and batton the back of the spine...see if the edge dulls fast. If so ...re HT.
Click to expand...
Ok it looks like there is no problem there.. I buried the blade in a piece of 2 x 6 and it's still very sharp.

oh this so called brass rod test....how do you go about that?

Also I think I'm going to go for the sanded transition line instead because rtadio shack is no longer here and the place that took over doesn't carry it ferric chloride. I tried it by both names. Oh well. Vinegar puts kind of a weird etch and so does lime juice. I'll try the lime one more time and then I'm going plain old sanding. Maybe I'll take it to 800 and see if it shows up better. ]

Mike
 
I still think your etch is showing what the steel has done in the heat treat.....
I used to email Ed Fowler all the time about "Reading" the etch.....I'd bet your seeing the result of the heat on the steel layout....
 
I have had some cool looking etches.....
doublegrind.jpg

cocCompanionSheath.jpg
 
Are those hamons on O-1? I never get mine to come out....what do you quench in?

My 1084 knives seem to give me the best hamons
 
Little spots can also be air bubbles causing the etch to not take in those places. I keep a toothbrush next to my etch tank and brush the sides of the blade while in the etch, it knocks the bubbles off.
 
Well here it is. My second attempt at heat treating with a torch. Triple edge quenched and double tempered. Stainless pins/thong hole. Micarta handle. Still have to clean it up a little better. Looks like I missed some streaks from the flitz spray. I'll post a better pic tomorrow in the custom knife gallery.

Thanks for all the help. I really like the looks of the transition zone but I'm not big on how easily the rest of the knife can scratch. I will be playing with this steel more though.

Mike Coughlin
 
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