Acid Etch differences

[SKIVIE]

Ive been playing with different finishes for the past week of which I came across something that had me wondering. In the two photos the first one shows two blades. The top one was stock Removal and the bottom Forged. Both blades where Edge quenched and Tempered the same. The Stock Removal blade came out with a fairly descent Hammon when the forged one didnt. Both came out with an Etch that I really like though. As you can see in photo #2, the stock removal hammon is more evident but notice the Cracks in the spine. Dont believe they are cracks because there are no visible cracks on the spine but on both sides of the blade and when i put it in the vise and move it around it shows no sign of crack or weekness. Ever seen this before ? Any thoughts ?

The Acid solution was aprox 30% FC/ 70% distilled water.

Either way, im having a ball playing around with this and cant wait to try something else out.

Shane

[SKIVIE]

Had to bump this back up. Anyone ever seen these types of cracks lookin dillies ?

Shane

[JeridJohnson]

I have never seen anything like that before (in my limited forging experience).. Have these blades been ground after tempering and then etched? It almost looks like the steel got ripped apart perhaps while trying to lower the point on the tip or something.. have you tried to look at it under magnification? What kinda steel is that?

[Demaske]

Are they maybe deep scratch lines that were not sanded out? Just a thought.

[Smitty]

I tried using super thin, high carbon, shim stock to get a higher initial layer count since I have to hammer weld with the armstrong method. I was trying to take a shortcut and found that after a weld and folding once if I ground the billet too fast the layers would sort of delaminate one or two at a time. I was getting blistery looking cold shuts in small areas that started out looking like a crack on the surface of the blade. I kept the couple of knives I made this way and they work fine but I went to thicker stock and the problem went away. Just my 2 cents.

[Raymond Johnson]

There cracks. YEP!!!!! I said it and i'll say it again. There cracks.
Cracks don't always run all the way to the other side. If we did magnetic flux exams of more knives we would be shocked and amazed. I am not saying that there aren't some really great knives out there, but cracking happen even down to the microsopic level. Try polishing your knive to a high grit with water. Let the small metal particle float in the water. They will collect around a crack every time, over and over. You could also try a magnet in the process. Understand that this is just a home shop type test, not a an exact process. After that try etching with a weak ferric chloride soluction. Good luck. Raymond Johnson