I was browsing trough some forums the other day and ran into a hilarious thread.
I had a laugh for a few days and I thought you might want too.
The OP of the thread, as I read and as he claims,
has trouble with performing heat treatment without his blades breaking
so he found a solution which will not just prevent the breakage
but allow him to achieve some kind of superior heat treatment.
It seems that achieving this heat treatment is like a Holy Grail to him.
So, the OP first said:
And then he added some pictures:
The picture really says what the OP is trying to achieve
but this is where it gets funny.
I got no idea who wrote this article but it is obviously by someone
who has no metal work experience what so ever.
I don't know if the OP imagines HT furnace as filled with extremely hot coal
while the air inside is ice cold
so that the only heat the blade gets is that by a direct contact with coal.
Even if so, this method would be technically unachievable
because metal conducts heat
and there is no way that you can heat one side of the blade while the other
stays colder for more than a few degrees.
Not putting the hot air into the equation which could be even hotter that the coal itself,
the difference would be counted in few grades of temp. scale
but in the OP's vision it is tens or even hundreds of degrees of difference.
Have in mind that the blade is wide only a few centimeters.
And it would be impossible to achieve such a distinctive line between
the two parts of the steel.
This could be only possible with some advanced technology which would
instantly heat one half of the blade
where that effect would only last for couple of seconds
until the heat diffuses into the other half.
To a trained eye, the explanation to this picture is more than simple.
First, the one who wrote the comment in it has no idea what he has seen.
Or the story was purposely altered to attract readers.
Second, how knowledgeable one must be to believe in such comment.
Third, anyone who understands the basics of Japanese swordsmithing
would know that they coat their blades in clay before heat treating.
So, the simple answer to the difference in color in this picture is: CLAY
Forth: one simple google search would bring you to the original text
which clearly says that the temperature must be homogenized throughout the blade.
The thread was really funny but what bothered me was the arrogant behavior of the OP,
where he used insults towards people opposing his beliefs.
He probably thinks high about himself because of a lot of blades he broke.
Actually it was painful to watch how low he fell.
I don't know if he visits this forum but I can guess how embarrassing this would be for him.
Not just that all this is funny but is also dangerous.
I don't care how many blades that OP will break in his life
but to some amateur seeking knowledge his beliefs could seem legitimate
and then, instead of concentrating on achieving a proper heat treat,
he could lose time on experimenting how many hundreds of "normalizations"
or subsequent quenchs (omg) or some other nonsense
is needed to prevent heat treatment errors.
Well, one man's nonsense - another man's Holy Grail.
I had a laugh for a few days and I thought you might want too.
The OP of the thread, as I read and as he claims,
has trouble with performing heat treatment without his blades breaking
so he found a solution which will not just prevent the breakage
but allow him to achieve some kind of superior heat treatment.
It seems that achieving this heat treatment is like a Holy Grail to him.
So, the OP first said:
And then he added some pictures:
The picture really says what the OP is trying to achieve
but this is where it gets funny.
I got no idea who wrote this article but it is obviously by someone
who has no metal work experience what so ever.
I don't know if the OP imagines HT furnace as filled with extremely hot coal
while the air inside is ice cold
so that the only heat the blade gets is that by a direct contact with coal.
Even if so, this method would be technically unachievable
because metal conducts heat
and there is no way that you can heat one side of the blade while the other
stays colder for more than a few degrees.
Not putting the hot air into the equation which could be even hotter that the coal itself,
the difference would be counted in few grades of temp. scale
but in the OP's vision it is tens or even hundreds of degrees of difference.
Have in mind that the blade is wide only a few centimeters.
And it would be impossible to achieve such a distinctive line between
the two parts of the steel.
This could be only possible with some advanced technology which would
instantly heat one half of the blade
where that effect would only last for couple of seconds
until the heat diffuses into the other half.
To a trained eye, the explanation to this picture is more than simple.
First, the one who wrote the comment in it has no idea what he has seen.
Or the story was purposely altered to attract readers.
Second, how knowledgeable one must be to believe in such comment.
Third, anyone who understands the basics of Japanese swordsmithing
would know that they coat their blades in clay before heat treating.
So, the simple answer to the difference in color in this picture is: CLAY
Forth: one simple google search would bring you to the original text
which clearly says that the temperature must be homogenized throughout the blade.
The thread was really funny but what bothered me was the arrogant behavior of the OP,
where he used insults towards people opposing his beliefs.
He probably thinks high about himself because of a lot of blades he broke.
Actually it was painful to watch how low he fell.
I don't know if he visits this forum but I can guess how embarrassing this would be for him.
Not just that all this is funny but is also dangerous.
I don't care how many blades that OP will break in his life
but to some amateur seeking knowledge his beliefs could seem legitimate
and then, instead of concentrating on achieving a proper heat treat,
he could lose time on experimenting how many hundreds of "normalizations"
or subsequent quenchs (omg) or some other nonsense
is needed to prevent heat treatment errors.
Well, one man's nonsense - another man's Holy Grail.
In the mean time, I'm sure there's a cool new knife at the mall -- run along...
