Hamon help

[JeremyBartlett]

Hey guys, I've been making knives with hamons for years but some of it is still a mystery to me. I hoping maybe Kevin can help out with a scientific approach to the issues I am having. When I first started making knives with hamons I used 1095 or w2 with rutlands black furnace cement, quenched in maxim dt48. Never really had an issue with getting close to what I wanted, but they were a little boring with no activity.

So now to current times. I've switched to satanite and parks 50 and using only w2. I usually don't have many issues when I'm doing thin stock, such as kitchen knives. I clay and quench them without bevelling the blank and put my clay on between 1/16 and 1/8 thick. My issue comes with thicker blades, 3/16 to be exact. I tried 6 blades the other day with about 1/8" clay and bevels not ground in yet. I tried different Temps for each blade going from 1470 all the way down to 1425...the hamon was near the bottom and looked best at 1425. I've beveled the blades now and before I waste another heat treat session messing these up my question is, on thicker blades does the clay need to be thinner than on thin blades. My thought is that the steel is thicker, so it already holds more heat, so less clay. Please let me know if my logic is correct. I really want to get this process down using satanite and parks 50.

 

[tkroenlein]

I'm certainly no expert here. I've only started messing with some clay less hamons, but your logic is consistent with my very limited experience. The 1075 I'm using seems quite easily controlled by thickness. In real practical terms, it just simply won't harden at a lower heat once it gets over about 1/8" thick, so it's pretty predictably controlled by grinding in some bevel and leaving the forge scale above it. That's pretty much where the hamon will be, and fairly active. I'm doing this in a forge with essentially zero soak time. Hope that helps. Probably won't.