opinions on hamon attempt

quint

quint

Joined
Nov 29, 2011
Messages
1,396
Working on this fighter type design one more time since I cracked the last one. Its aldo's W2 stock removal that started out about 1/4" thick. Still pretty close to stock thickness at thickest part.

Sorry for crummy paint but wanted to show satanite layout. The green is about 1/8" thick, the blueish color is where I take my paint brush and very thinned out satanite and blend it with the fingers that come down. The whole blade gets a wash (basically just a color change thickness less then just a milky water thickness).

Austenite at around 1450F, quenched in parks 50 at about 100F, tempered at around 420f for a couple of hours. I do this in my forge with a temperature readout but the temps are obviously somewhat hard to be exact on plus with a forge different areas will vary temperature. I do not have a muffler setup yet (in the works).

Not sure why the hamon features go so far down on the blade, I guess thats just the random nature of the beast or I was doing something wrong, or is this even a concern as long as the edge is proper hardness.

Thoughts, suggestions, welcome. Thanks for looking.
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Nice job. The hamon will be a little below the clay, so allow some extra room, or it may get too close to the edge. Those look fine, but you wouldn't want them any closer.
 
I've always found it helpful to keep in mind that the clay alone does not CREATE the hamon, it INFLUENCES the hamon.
Blade geometry, steel type, heat, forge, time, quench, etc. all add into the INFLUENCE scenario.
Clay is just one ingredient of the entire recipe.
Now the challenge is to learn from each one and gradually change degrees of each ingredient to get the exact hamon you pursue.
I'd say you've got one heck of a good start.
Now, remember exactly what you did!
 
Thanks a bunch for your input guys.

Stacy I am still learning (gaining experience) on how much the hamon goes beyond the clay line, I think the hardest part is where the clay gets thinned to help with the ashi I think it is, trying to keep this layer at a good gradient to achieve the results I am trying for is difficult.

Karl I am still picking up on alot of aspects and will try to keep good notes. I also need to start taking pictures or documenting the claying before and the resultant hamon afterwards. Maybe make a file with pictures, temps, soak times so on and so forth then keep those on my computer so I can see how adjusting these helps with the end result.
 
Quint, with a spine that thick (1/4" and bevels not ground all the way up, you will need to use less clay to keep the hamon away from the edge. That one is Nice, but too close for my liking.
 
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