The Hamon Thread

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I can't really get this to show up but I'm happy with it. It's very subtle until you hit the right light and then POP!
 
Kwaiken in Hitachi Blue #2.

Tried a different cement on this guy. This is DAP furnace cement in a caulking tube. It was really nice to work with and wasn't fragile when dry which is a bonus for me since I do my heat treating at work. I was able to clay up at home and let it cure over night. Sticks to the blade well. I'm going to try a few more alloys with it.

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Hardened at 1470F, 15 min soak, quenched in Parks 50 for a 10 count then air cooled. Tempered 2x2 hours at 400F.

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Here is a kitchen knife I made for my wife. I used Rutlands fire clay and polished with hot vinegar and 1500 silicon carbide grit.
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Tom Lewis said:
Kuraki, very nice! How are you polishing your blades?
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I think a different way every time :D

Generally speaking I hand sand to 1000, etch, and polish with 1500 grit silicon carbide. On that last blade I did a bunch of scrubbing with steel wool between etch cycles and then polished with the 1500 grit. After that I melted some pink scratchless onto a rag and rubbed for a while with that, it seemed to brighten the hard portion better than the 1500 grit. I'm going to give it a go with more etching/polishing tonight probably switching to vinegar and loose green chrome.
 
Willie71 said:
I forgot a Blade overnight in white vinegar. I bet the pearlite etched 1/2 way through the blade.
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I forgot a kiridashi in a 100% solution of pcb etchant/Ferric chloride for a day and a half last week. It was 1084/15n20 San Mai. It ate away a lot of the outside layers of 15n20. It looks kind of cool though actually. It's super light now too lol
 
I had to redo this hamon. I wanted to push it a little farther.
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After etching and polishing 4 times with ferric,
I removed all the oxides with steel wool (thanks kuraki for the tip) and very light sanding with 3000 grit trizact pad, then went to heated vinegar with dawn and 1500 grit silicon carbide.
Then artificial lemon juice... wouldn't recommend it even though I've been told real lemon juice is better.
Dumped the fake crap, used real lemon and a couple drops of dawn.
More polishing...
Then when I was happy with what I saw, went to flitz with felt.
The felt made a huge difference.
I think that tip was given by Salem Straub and it worked wonderfully.
Steel is Aldo's w2.
 
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Looking for some help or suggestions on this one (1095).:

1) No matter what I seem to try for polish or etchant, I can't get any contrast out of it. In the perfect light and at the perfect angle, I'm happy with what I see, but it takes too much effort to see it. Out of the handful of hamons I've done, contrast has always eluded me to some degree, but even more so with this one.

2) I don't believe I over etched this blade (could be wrong), but have what looks like pitting or ?. Is over-polishing possible...I have polished it a LOT? The pitting(?) can be seen best in the photos in the hardened area in the last pic, and near where the light brightly reflects off of the surface in the others.







Thanks for any help!

PS I'm thinking if the blade had been over-etched to the point of causing pitting, wouldn't it also be more likely to show more contrast?
 
I'm not an expert but the pitting is probably from spending way too much time sanding/polishing, if your polishing with water and trying to get more from your hamon by polishing it that will cause tiny pitting like that.

I guess it rust at an almost microscopic level.

I've done the same thing a couple of times.
 
First knife I'm actually proud of and first clayed blade, tried something crazy and it came out pretty neat.
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Here's what the clay job was.
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It's 1095 convex grind, Meeco's furnace cement, 1 second quench in water then into canola oil. I wish i could get the hamon to stick out a little more. I hand sanded the blade to 1500 then etched in 1:6 ferric chloride 1-2 minutes at a time lightly sanding with 2000 grit paper between until it looked good. Then some more 2000 until it's to where you see.
 
kuraki said:
You're polishing away all of the contrast.
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I polish until all of the splotchy, uneven, ugly look after etching goes away. How do you polish that away while still leaving contrast behind?

MBurks said:
I'm not an expert but the pitting is probably from spending way too much time sanding/polishing, if your polishing with water and trying to get more from your hamon by polishing it that will cause tiny pitting like that.

I guess it rust at an almost microscopic level.

I've done the same thing a couple of times.
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Tyshoots said:
Do you use Windex?
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No water and no Windex was used other than when washing just prior to etching and the water present in the etchant. As I recall, I did a few very short ferric etches and some etches in vinegar long enough to change the surface color, which takes longer than ferric. I've always tended towards short light etches vs longer deep ones.
 
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