Hi all,
I've been lurking here for a while, but wanted to share what your collective knowledge helped me achieve. This is my first real attempt at forging a knife. It is my take on a yanagi ba style knife. It is made from 1095 steel differentially quenched in brine for 3 seconds and then into canola oil. I ultimately decided that I liked the hamon better without etching it so I polished it back out. You can almost see it in one of the pics.
There are a lot of flaws in the knife, but the pics hide them pretty well. I learned a lot from this one and it won't be my last.
Here are a few pics:
Here is a test cut video. It isn't up to the legendary edge these knives are supposed to have, but it is the sharpest one in my kitchen...
Thanks to all of you!