Ok, dumb Hamon question time

[stephanfowler]

I have always had good success with Aldos 1084 creating Hamon

I normalize several times, first at 1500, then 1450, then 1400, then 1350, and sometimes 1300 for good luck

the idea is to lower the grain size aggressively in order to make a deep hardening steel into a shallow hardening steel.

I HT at 1425 and soak for a good 10 minutes, quench in parks 50 using satanite, generally 1/16 thick

All of these blades are Aldos 1084

 

[sharpeknives]

Nice work Stephan, so thats the trick.

 

[stephanfowler]

Nice work Stephan, so thats the trick.

I don't know that it's "the" trick, but it's the one I use.

 

[Danbo]

Ok, so I ground out another blade last night. Similar in size and style to the 1084 blade. Going to put clay on tonight and heat treat it. New blade is Aldo's W2. 1/4" thick stuff. Would appreciate advice on temps involved; for normalizing, soak, and temper, please.

 

[Danbo]

Ok, here's a pic of the new W2 blade, after the first failed attempt at a Hamon. Most of the clay fell off in the oven and the resulting Hamon was less than spectacular, so I redid the clay and quenched again. From what I can see now, after the second clay attempt and a quick pass on a 120 grit belt and a light etch, the final Hamon is going to be pretty damn cool. I'll post pics, once I get it a little closer to the Nick Wheeler stage. :thumbup:

 

[Josh Dabney]

Danbo,

I've been getting my but kicked by Hamon also, LOL. I think I've got my problem nailed down though and will be HT-ing again this weekend.

I thought I'd mention what I've been doing to check what I've got after hardening.
-I get the blade clean with a couple passes on an old 80
-A pass on an old 220
-A pass on an old 400
-A couple passes on a 600 grit cork

Takes less than 5 minutes total and gives a crystal clear look at the hamon.

Probably don't need to go this far once more experience is gained but being new to hamon I wanna see exactly what I've got before tempering.

This is what you can see after cleaning up-

After a 20 second dip in the ferric-

Take care, Josh

 

[Danbo]

Danbo,

I've been getting my but kicked by Hamon also, LOL. I think I've got my problem nailed down though and will be HT-ing again this weekend.

I thought I'd mention what I've been doing to check what I've got after hardening.
-I get the blade clean with a couple passes on an old 80
-A pass on an old 220
-A pass on an old 400
-A couple passes on a 600 grit cork

Takes less than 5 minutes total and gives a crystal clear look at the hamon.

Probably don't need to go this far once more experience is gained but being new to hamon I wanna see exactly what I've got before tempering.

This is what you can see after cleaning up-

After a 20 second dip in the ferric-

Take care, Josh

That's a pretty nice Hamon on that blade of yours! :thumbup:

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Are you sure that you are even getting your blade up to temp in your 5 minute soak?

Page, I am lost (of course nothing new there ).
I thought that soak time meant time spent at temp once reached?

 

[Josh Dabney]

Thanks,

Yeah that one came out great but was followed by 2 failures , LOL

Still working on it though

Mainly wanted to show that it's not hard to get a clear visual of the hamon without too much effort.

-Josh