The Newbies Arena Are you new to knife making? Here is all the help you will need. |
03-03-2013, 09:06 PM
|
|
Enthusiast
|
|
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Tioga County, PA
Posts: 31
|
|
Hamon Line Troubles
Hello Folks,
First off I would like to say thanks in advance for taking the time to answer my questions. The last two batches of knives that I've done (6 knives in each batch) Have had some issues with what I call hamon line run out (think grain run out on a board). Here is an illustration showing what I'm talking about, pardon my poor paint skills lol. Illustration A show what a normal hamon generally should look like after quenching and etching a knife. Illustration B shows what is happening over my last two batches. The first of the two batches I mentioned only four knives came out like illustration B, the last batch I did all of them came out that way. Here is my set up, I'm using 1095, in a kiln not a forge, I use Parks #50 as a quenchant, and the knives go right into tempering immediately after ht. Before these two batches I've only ever had one knife do this, and I just wrote it off as being a fluke, now I cannot. The only thing that has changed about the way I do things (and I try to do things exactly the same each and every time to maintain some sort of quality control) is that these two batches, when I applied the clay to the knife, I let them air dry for a few days instead of drying them in an oven. If anyone has any idea what may be causing something like this I would love to hear about it, I'm racking my brain trying to figure this one out.
|
03-03-2013, 09:16 PM
|
Master
|
|
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada
Posts: 859
|
|
My guess would be that the quench was to slow or the blade was not completely brought up to critical. Did you agitate the blades in a cutting motion when you quenched them? I've noticed that I had to use a more aggressive agitation when quenching with clay to prevent that same problem from happening.
__________________
J, Saccucci Knives, JSK
|
03-03-2013, 10:01 PM
|
|
Skilled
|
|
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Utah
Posts: 524
|
|
Would it be possible to post pics of the actual knives? From your diagram I'm not following what the concern is since the shape looks like a chisel grind.
How close to the edge is your clay coat? If the clay coat is well back of the edge, but only the edge is getting fully hardened, then it may be that your blade is not fully up to temp and just the thinner section was hot enough to form martensite. Like I said, Without pics of your blades, I'm not sure what the problem is.
|
03-03-2013, 10:18 PM
|
|
Enthusiast
|
|
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Tioga County, PA
Posts: 31
|
|
Sorry I didn't get back to you guys sooner, I was chatting about this very thing with ray in the kith chat room. Sorry about the poor paint skills, these aren't chisel ground, they are tantos, I just didn't add any plunge cut lines in the illustration, but in reality they would exist about a third of the way down the edge in the illustration. I didn't post any actual pictures because I just did a quick etch just to see where the hamons were, so it's hard to see anything clearly in pictures. It would seem by ray's suggestions that my problem was that I had the clay too close to the edges of my knives. They are only about 3/4" wide and I had clay in spots down about half way to the edge, maybe slightly less. I'm going to try reducing the clay to about a quarter of the way down and re heat treat per rays suggestion. Thanks for the input guys!!
|
03-03-2013, 10:19 PM
|
|
Master
|
|
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Flagstaff, AZ
Posts: 872
|
|
From the info given I'd also say only the tip is reaching critical temp. Also what are you using for clay? A lot of them it is not necessary to dry over days. I use refractory cement, Satanist and sairset. Just apply it and throw in the forge. It will dry in about three seconds. In my experience and the experience of the guy that told me this trick, it actually works better than letting it dry
|
03-04-2013, 11:14 AM
|
Skilled
|
|
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Posts: 355
|
|
A couple of things I?d recommend
1 ? Take pictures of your clay. It?s a lot easier to look at the etched knife and the clay together to troubleshoot/figure out how you might want to change the clay in the future
2 ? If you are doing large batches of knives, check the temperature of your quenching fluid. Depending on the volume of quench fluid, you can experience temperature rise. A simple meat thermometer works well
Getting a consistency with hamon?s requires controlling all variables, minor changes can and will have profound impacts. IMO logging this data will help you refine your process much faster
|
Tags
|
1095, apply, back, blade, blades, chisel grind, coat, edge, etch, etching, forge, hamon, heat treat, hot, knife, knives, paint, post, quenched, simple, throw |
Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
|
|
Thread Tools |
|
Display Modes |
Linear Mode
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is On
|
|
|
Similar Threads
|
Thread |
Thread Starter |
Forum |
Replies |
Last Post |
O1 and hamon line
|
levensailor.r |
Heat Treating and Metallurgy |
11 |
02-10-2011 10:08 AM |
hamon line
|
levensailor.r |
Heat Treating and Metallurgy |
5 |
01-25-2011 08:15 PM |
Hamon Line
|
GANNMADE |
The Newbies Arena |
2 |
04-19-2003 11:33 AM |
hamon line
|
nifeman |
The Outpost |
2 |
12-27-2002 02:54 PM |
Hamon Line on 5160
|
DiamondG Knives |
Ed Caffrey's Workshop |
2 |
08-28-2002 09:00 PM |
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 09:09 PM.
|