Woodgrain with Hamon...Never seen this..wtf? Pics inside.

David Schott

David Schott

Joined
Sep 27, 2004
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I just heat treated a blade forged from W2. HT went fine, looked like a good hamon....finished to 1000 grit...saw the hamon clearly before etch.

Etch went great, hamon came right out...BUT...

I have what almost looks like woodgrain running through the steel. Looks just like its made of damascus. Wont polish out, is very subtle...not like alloy banding i've seen. It is hard as rock...looks awesome...Here is a pic:

What the heck is this??? Its a pain to get a pic of....
wood2.jpg

wood.jpg
 
Oh...this is not just in the hardened area. It is an integral and the woodgrain pattern goes right through the bolster/guard/ricasso area where it meets the tang.

I normalized three times, used my paragon oven for the temp control, soaked for 6 minutes, its awesome looking but im hoping not a flaw...
 
Shell Voluta Oil. Its a quench oil K&G used to sell. Never had this and ive been using it for a year....
 
could it be grinding marks that were not polished out deeply enough before HT?

i kind of doubt that since multiple people said they get it but it was the first thought i had
-matt
 
It is cool looking. Have not seen it yet with the W2 I have been using. It would be interesting to do some micrographs on it.
 
THanks for confirmation, guys.
These arent grindr marks. They swirl and loop like woodgrain or ladder damascus. Really cool stuff. Im gonna polish for a while and see what comes out.....This has been my little project for a while...
 
I have had a similar thing happen with 52100. I forged a round bar down using my press. I could see each of the press points were the drawing dies pressed into the steel. Gave it more of a ladder pattern rather than woodgrain though. It was also only on the spine area and was not visible in the hardened edge.
 
Chuck, That sounds like this...it was forged down from 1" round bar, partially on a press.

Most of it polished away, but I'll post up pics of the final knife once the glue sets up.
 
As you forge down the round bar, it gets heated to a high temperature (It is easy to over heat larger stock ,trying to make each heat last as long as possible when drawing out). This allows the surface to burn off carbon and redistribute the alloy metals in different concentrations ,effectively forming a layer of different steel. As you form the final shape, ripples,loops, and swirls develop as you push this skin deeper into the core ( similar to making random pattern on damascus) by the hammer/press deformations.The hada in Japanese tamahagane steel forms from similar events in the forging and folding of the steel.
Stacy
 
Soaked at 1450. I didnt think soak was necessary since it was soaking from 1425-1450 as the oven came up, but let it soak anyways to avoid alloy banding that ive got with 1095 in the past.
 
Heres a quick pic: I have a step by step of me crashing my way through my first integral but its 45 pics and I dont know if I want to post all of them in a row :)
42.jpg

31.jpg
 
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