Whoops, mislabeled 1084& 1095 blades...how do I tell which is which?

N

Nic.

Joined
Dec 8, 2014
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Question pretty much said it all...feeling pretty stupid. I have 2 blades that are identical in design. I marked which was what steel in sharpie...but it rubbed off while grinding and now I'm scratching my head trying to figure it out? Any advice?
 
The only thing I could think of is drilling a hole in each. 1095 is much harder to drill that 1084 in my opinion. Mainly subscribing and waiting for other tricks.
 
If you deferentially harden them both, you'll be able to tell pretty easily. The one with a significantly more active hamon will be 1095, 1084 will have a nice line, but it won't have much chaos.
 
Thanks guys. They are from Aldo...but they are cut out blanks so there is no color coding.
 
For the people who know, would heat treating them both as if they were 1095 hurt the 1084 in any way?
 
The heat treat is 25° different and 10 minutes of soak. I would seriously consider just heat treating them both as 1095, but price them as 1084. Unless I'm totally off base, both will come out nice.
 
javand said:
If you deferentially harden them both, you'll be able to tell pretty easily. The one with a significantly more active hamon will be 1095, 1084 will have a nice line, but it won't have much chaos.
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Very good idea. If you use satanite clay and quench them using 1095 specs, you will definitely be able to tell the difference from the etched hamons.

A 1084 hamon will looks like this, with horizontal type lines. Also, the hamon from 1084 will follow the clay lines almost exactly.

 
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i4Marc said:
For the people who know, would heat treating them both as if they were 1095 hurt the 1084 in any way?
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The soak time won't hurt the 1084, there will just be a little extra decarb. The only difference is the temperature for 1095 is a little lower than 1084. If you quench both from 1485 degrees, I don't think it will affect the 1084 much.
 
Ok, thanks, I appreciate the help. I've been working in trying to make a nice hammon, with little success. Can't buy FC locally and the hazmat shipping fee is insane. Still trying to but some;). I'll ht both as 1095 and see what happens, thanks!
 
Nic. said:
Ok, thanks, I appreciate the help. I've been working in trying to make a nice hammon, with little success. Can't buy FC locally and the hazmat shipping fee is insane. Still trying to but some;). I'll ht both as 1095 and see what happens, thanks!
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You can use vinegar among a whole bunch of different acids to etch.
 
S.Alexander said:
The soak time won't hurt the 1084, there will just be a little extra decarb. The only difference is the temperature for 1095 is a little lower than 1084. If you quench both from 1485 degrees, I don't think it will affect the 1084 much.
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+1 I think Shane nailed it here. For a normal quench (no clay), I'd heat both to about 1485 and quench in P50.
Erin
 
Depending on how much you took off of the tang, you may be able to measure with a caliper and compare them to your bar stock. My last 1095 order was different thickness than the 1084 by a little bit.
 
Does 1095 etch different then 1084. What I'm wondering is could he etch the tang on both blades and then etch the bar stock and then match up the color or etch on the blade to the stock?
 
JTknives said:
Does 1095 etch different then 1084. What I'm wondering is could he etch the tang on both blades and then etch the bar stock and then match up the color or etch on the blade to the stock?
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Not enough differently that he'd be able to tell.


I've made literal tons of damascus with each, and while I could tell the difference between 1084 and 1095 in billets with bold black lines side by side, I couldn't tell which was which by etching the ends.

I did once identify w2 (when I wasn't sure if it was 1084 or not, due to a similar mistake as the OP), by deferentially hardening the tang, just to see the hamon.
 
If you have some FC around, give an etch a try. Sand the tangs clean and to 400 grit. Sand some known 1095 and 1084 the same, Etch at the same time, pulling out and checking every 10 seconds or so. I bet you will see enough difference to ID the two.

The HT will be fine with the info you have been given.
 
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