Finally saw the glow after 3 months of heat treating my own knives

Been grinding on kitchen blades in my tiny shop near Boise, ID, and the first hamon line actually popped on a 1095 blank last night - took 4 failed attempts to get the clay right. Anyone else get that weird satisfaction when a blade finally shows its character after all that grinding?

3 comments

3 Comments

reesemiller23d ago

Went through a whole batch of O1 tool steel last spring where I kept getting this weird cloudy hamon that just looked like a dirty watermark instead of a clean line. Took me way too long to figure out I was letting the blade soak too long during normalization and the grain was getting too coarse. Had to grind one blade down to basically a butter knife thickness before I finally got it right. Still got that blade sitting on my bench as a reminder to watch my soak times closer.

caleb_stone24d agoProlific Poster

Finally saw the glow" is a great way to put it. My first good hamon came after four tries too. The trick for me was mixing furnace cement with a little water to get it like thick yogurt, then letting it dry for 24 hours before the first heat. One thing nobody tells you: if your clay cracks during the quench, those cracks will ruin the line. I started making my coat about 1/8 inch thick on the spine and tapering it down to nothing near the edge. Also don't quench too hot or you'll burn the steel and lose the pattern. That first time you see the wavy line after etching, it's worth all the failed blanks.

the_holly17d ago

Caleb, did you find the furnace cement mix dried too brittle compared to satanite or rutlands?