Gary, I think the harmon has a very unique look and fits nicely. If you do not mind me asking, what did you use for the clay and what was the quenchant? Also, did you let the clay dry before you brought it up to hardening temperatures? I may be up in Branson later this week. I would love to stop by if you are going to be around. Thanks. Nice Job.

Anthony G

|quoted:

Gary, I think the harmon has a very unique look and fits nicely. If you do not mind me asking, what did you use for the clay and what was the quenchant? Also, did you let the clay dry before you brought it up to hardening temperatures? I may be up in Branson later this week. I would love to stop by if you are going to be around. Thanks. Nice Job.

Anthony G

Anthony,

I used Satanite for the clay. I applied thin stripes of it running perpendicular to the cutting edge and about 1/2" apart. The quenchant was Parks 50.

I will be at my shop Mon/Wed/Fri/Sat next week. Please feel free to come by if you can.

Gary

Here's another W1 blade that I clayed with Satanite. This was H/T'ed @ 1435 and quenched in Park's 50 with an interrupted quench (3 seconds in/ 3 seconds out and back in until cool)

Gary

Here's the completed knife with ironwood handle:

Gary

Gary can you describe the process you used to etch the hamon. Also what grit did you sand up to when you finished sanding the knife.

Thanks Scott

Hi Scott,

I sanded the blades to 600 grit. Then I did multiple 10 second etches in Ferric Chloride, wiping them off each time with a clean cotton cloth. I then rubbed them down with a light oil & 1200 grit silicon oxide powder.

Gary

Thanks Gary. I have been struggling with bringing out a hamon on 1095. How did you dilute the ferric chloride?

Gary be very careful with the interrupt schedule, the 3 second mark in P50 puts things an a very tricky zone for phases formed. What effects does 3 second interrupt produce that takes you in that direction?

|quoted:

Gary be very careful with the interrupt schedule, the 3 second mark in P50 puts things an a very tricky zone for phases formed. What effects does 3 second interrupt produce that takes you in that direction?

This was a technique that John White gave me years ago and I have followed mainly because I liked his results. I'd appreciate your thoughts on it.

Thanks,

Gary

Before the fast oils became well known many people used water for these clay techniques, in fact most believed you had to use water to get the effects. The direct conductive cooling phase is so extreme in water that people found less distortion and "pings of death" if they did some interruptions at the tail end of the vapor jacket collapse phase. Most people who did this simply carried their methods over, including the interrupts, when they went to the fast oils. However, the fast oils have a very different timing in the quench phases than water, and it is more critical to keep the blade cooling during the latter vapor jacket collapse. But, more critically, the oils are engineered to have a much slower conductive cooling phase which will greatly reduce distortion and even eliminate the chance of the "ping", although it will also prolong the period in which you can get unwanted microstructures/phases in the steel.

I have found the most vibrant hamons to come from starker contrasts in the habuchi area resulting from a delineation between fine pearlite and martensite. It just makes sense that greater contrasts will come from two phases rather than a mix of many. I have helped a few guys frustrated by losing Japanese pieces in water make the transition to oil and have been amazed at how vibrant the activity can be that they achieve once they get it dialed in. I normally demonstrate the technique with a quench that is not different than an un-clayed blade but with about three extra seconds to account for the clay.

Forgive me Gary, I don't want to distract from your images because it is a very nice piece and I only want to explore the heat treat aspects, but this is one of those instances where folks could rightfully ask what I know about it since I am not known for doing hamons, but just to show I have done some here is a demo piece I did from the Mid-America several years ago:

It was clayed with furnace cement and then quenched in Parks #50 for 10 seconds with a 400F interrupt for a modified marquench. Since it was done as a demo at a hammer-in the finish is right off the grinder (either 220X or 400X cannot remember). This photo was taken on top of my laptop case right before it was auctioned off for the hammer-in.

Although I don't normally do hamons this is another one of those little things that you can get a bit of an advantage with by knowing what is happening inside the steel, another one of those things where one can say "you don't need to know all that egghead stuff to make knives... but it helps" <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//wink.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=';)' />

I am most familiar with hamons from staring at them at this level:

Kevin,

Thanks for taking the time to further explain. I understand what you're saying about the different phases and thanks. That makes a lot of sense.

Gary

|quoted:

Kevin,

Thanks for taking the time to further explain. I understand what you're saying about the different phases and thanks. That makes a lot of sense.

Gary

|quoted:

Before the fast oils became well known many people used water for these clay techniques, in fact most believed you had to use water to get the effects. The direct conductive cooling phase is so extreme in water that people found less distortion and "pings of death" if they did some interruptions at the tail end of the vapor jacket collapse phase. Most people who did this simply carried their methods over, including the interrupts, when they went to the fast oils. However, the fast oils have a very different timing in the quench phases than water, and it is more critical to keep the blade cooling during the latter vapor jacket collapse. But, more critically, the oils are engineered to have a much slower conductive cooling phase which will greatly reduce distortion and even eliminate the chance of the "ping", although it will also prolong the period in which you can get unwanted microstructures/phases in the steel.

I have found the most vibrant hamons to come from starker contrasts in the habuchi area resulting from a delineation between fine pearlite and martensite. It just makes sense that greater contrasts will come from two phases rather than a mix of many. I have helped a few guys frustrated by losing Japanese pieces in water make the transition to oil and have been amazed at how vibrant the activity can be that they achieve once they get it dialed in. I normally demonstrate the technique with a quench that is not different than an un-clayed blade but with about three extra seconds to account for the clay.

Forgive me Gary, I don't want to distract from your images because it is a very nice piece and I only want to explore the heat treat aspects, but this is one of those instances where folks could rightfully ask what I know about it since I am not known for doing hamons, but just to show I have done some here is a demo piece I did from the Mid-America several years ago:

It was clayed with furnace cement and then quenched in Parks #50 for 10 seconds with a 400F interrupt for a modified marquench. Since it was done as a demo at a hammer-in the finish is right off the grinder (either 220X or 400X cannot remember). This photo was taken on top of my laptop case right before it was auctioned off for the hammer-in.

Although I don't normally do hamons this is another one of those little things that you can get a bit of an advantage with by knowing what is happening inside the steel, another one of those things where one can say "you don't need to know all that egghead stuff to make knives... but it helps" <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//wink.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=';)' />

I am most familiar with hamons from staring at them at this level:

Hi Kevin,

Could you elaborate on the 400F interrupt please?

Thank you,

Beverly Devereux