Some W2 hamon action!!

silver_pilate

silver_pilate

Joined
Oct 30, 2002
Messages
3,974
A while back I bought some of Don Hanson's wonderful W2 round and had it power-forged into bar stock. From one of those bars, I pounded out my first forged blade last week. I heat treated it last night and finished out the blade today. I'll put a handle on this week and post pics.

Here's the blade after I clayed it:

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I used satanite for the clay. First I applied a super thin layer of satanite, dried it with the heat gun, and normalized the blade. Then, I brushed off the first layer of satanite, applied a new one, and then applied the thicker clay (around 1/16") to the blade. I again dried it partially with the heat gun prior to putting it in the oven which was around 450F (turned off and cooling down) after normalizing. After a few minutes, I brought the blade up to 1450F and held it there for 15 minutes. I quenched in Park's #50 at 78F. In for one-thousand, two-thousand, three-thousand; out for one-thousand, two-thousand, three-, and back in the oil to cool to oil temp. The satanite came off nicely after it cooled down. I tempered the blade and that gets us to today.

I cleaned up the flats using the disc grinder (I LOVE that thing), and cleaned up the bevels and plunges on the grinder. I went through the grits from 400 to 2000 by hand, and then I cleaned with alcohol and etched in a 4:1 ferric chloride:water solution for a 30 count. After it came out, I polished with a paper town, red rouge, and WD40 followed by 0000 steel wool and WD40.

I'm very pleased at how it turned out, though next time, I'll have my clay terminate a little higher on the blade to raise the hamon.

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Thanks for looking!

--nathan
 
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Awesome, Nathan! Congrats on your first forged blade; it looks fantastic. I haven't forged anything for about a year and I've been itching lately to get back to it. I also haven't managed to finish my first forged knife yet either...

Looking forward to seeing it done.
 
It looks nice Nathan. Good activity and plenty high enough along the edge. Gotta love that W-2
 
Sweet, man. Obviously your first forging attempts are leaps and bounds better than mine were (and maybe still are!). Our tastes are awfully similar, so it seems... I think we've got the same couch, too.;)

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Some crazy activity you have in that hamon, Matthew! Great stuff and a great looking big ol' knife there.

Don, I don't think you give us cavemen enough credit. :grumpy: I can ride motorcycles and bowl, dress fashionably, and occasionally make a knife that turns out ok. :p :D

Thanks for the comments, everyone!

--nathan
 
Mike, I'm hunting for some thicker guard stock right now, but I think I'll be putting a shaped index finger guard. As for the handle, right now I'm leaning towards using a block of stabilized pamelle (quilted) sapele that I received as an unexpected courtesy a while back from Larry (Shaughnessy). That's most likely the direction I'll take. Hopefully, I'll order some thicker guard stock tomorrow and be able to get this thing finished out. I'm keeping this one :D.

--nathan
 
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