Unintended hamon, 1095?

[matthewhoffman]

I know this has come up a few times, but I'm hoping someone can help me know whether to worry or not.

I've been buying 1095 from Aldo for years. Only in this last batch have I experienced these mystery hamons. I'm heat-treating blanks, no pre-grinding. Steel thickness is .095-.110. The hamons usually appear as circles, spots or simply blobs. So far, they haven't appeared close to the edge.

So: Apart from my aesthetic objections, do I have anything to worry about? I don't want to be selling junk blades.

Welcome your thoughts.

- matthew

 

[john april]

are you sure its not decarb or scale ?

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Some photos will help. How much have you ground away when you discover the marks?

 

[matthewhoffman]

I sold the knife yesterday (and started to worry), so don't have pictures at the moment. I'll snap some the next time the hamons appear (if they appear), and will welcome opinions. They're certainly not decarb/scale. As I recall, I started to notice them at about 220 grit ... and they really started to bug me when I was hand-finishing at 400. Grrrr.

They've appeared on the last three or four chef's knives. Haven't noticed them when I use thinner stock--and it was never a problem in the past. Nothing has changed at my end. A couple of normalizing cycles, quenching in Parks, etc.