To mortar or not to mortar this is my ? w/pic

sweet

sweet

Joined
Nov 11, 1999
Messages
1,525
The latest...I rather hollow grind then do these flat grinds ( I think this is kinda flat?:D ) anyways this is my 1st semi-clean flat ground blade that took almost 4 hours!!...this ground blade turned out better than the 1st one I posted awhile back, but the 1st one survived the mortar h.t!:thumbup: ...so..to mortar the blade and h.t or just plain h.t ? Right now with 4 blades not completed I am batting 50% on the mortar h.t with 2 good and 2 bad (cracks/warps)...I am mixed at wanting to see a non-warped non-cracked blade but then I want to see what comes out with the mortar (I just get a little tweaked when the blade does:barf: )

so you choose and I'll post up the pics either way:rolleyes:

dsc02150z1jv8.jpg
 
Love the blade, and seeing you getting some GREAT use out of that grinder. But, you're over my head. I don't even know what mortar you're talking about.
 
Bill Marsh said:
Put it on with a fork. Then you can be a mortar forker. Yah! Beat Bruise to it!
Click to expand...

Bill ? Maybe he feels too intimidated to fork it on with you shovelling that one out . L:O:L

B:T:W: Very nice blade and outstanding graphics .
 
sweet - hope it's not pretentious of me to offer suggestions...if so, please forgive my intrusion.

Here's what I would do to minimize warping.


You need more "mortar" on the blade:

sweetknife.jpg


Don't let any mortar go below the red line. I get my best results that way.


Make sure you are heating the knife evenly...as much as possible. I've found that my oven (which is quite even compared to a forge)...still heats a just a hair hotter on the right side, than on the left.

Quench tip first and fast. Go all the way down over the tang.


Check the mortar once after it gets to temperature to fill any cracks, etc. Also counts as a normalizing.


After heat-treat, assuming (as shown in your pic) that you have left some "flats"...you can straighten during the temper. Get a piece of mild steel and clamp the blade to it. If it's still warped, temper again. Allow extra time for the mild steel to get to temperature.


Best of luck.

I'm out this weekend...but after I get back, I plan on doing a video showing what I do to clay-heattreat. Should be fun....for me, anyway. :D :p


Cool blade...and nice grind, btw! :thumbup:
 
Ok, I get (I think) what's going on here now. But I do have a question. Why the streaks of mortar that go all the way across the knife from spine to edge? Is that intentional, and if so, what is the purpose? I would have thought that for hardening purposes you wouldn't want any mortar/clay to approach the edge too close so that the hamon/temper line/hardening was more uniform down the blade. I appreciate any pointers people can supply and apologize if I'm being dense. This is the first time that I've heard about the actual step-by-step process of differential hardening.

Thanks!
 
I think the streaks are to give a wavy temper line along the edge. But I could be wrong, hopefully sweet will fill us in. Very, very nice looking grind on that blade sweet, I really like the looks of it. :thumbup:
 
Spectre: Um...yeah. That kind of mortar...



Yeah- the kind that doesn't go boom!!



munk
 
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