Not Satisfied with Hamon

[Gary Mulkey]

I have no problem (well there are always problems )with getting the hamon in the steel that I want but have not been satisfied with my process of "showing it off". I don't have a good method of giving the high contrast of dark & light that I would like. How do most of you finish a clay tempered blade?

 

Gary

Edited August 5, 2009 by Gary Mulkey

[John Smith]

Gary

 

For starters I polish up to the 1000 grit and then start doing light dips into Ferric, and then removing the oxides with Rubbing Compound then rubbing ultra fine pumice, then do this all over again with the next grit until I reach 3000 grit and by then the hamon is very defined and the soft steel is darker.

 

Now as other will post to this thread keep in mind that not all methods work for everyone so pick and experiment

[RedNeckLeftie]

Hi Gary,

 

My approach is a mix of East and West. I use EDM stones up to #900US, then wet/dry at #1000US. Then I polish with a thick piece of hazuya with only baking soda water for lube--clouds-up the softer body, mirror polishes the hardened areas. After that, I etch in either ferric or lemon/lime juice. (My ferric is at 2:13 ferric:distilled H2O, but that seems too "potent" at this point. I suggest 1:3 down to 1:5 ferric:distilled H2O). Oxides are then cleaned with Flitz (or similar: SimiChrome, Noxon, etc.) and paper towel.

 

After degreasing that with denatured alcohol, I polish the whole blade with the same (now thinner piece of) hazuya, using a "lube" of baking soda water and hazuya-on-hazuya rubbings. (If you work a piece of wetted hazuya on another piece of it, you will get a gray-white paste, more commonly called "tojiru"). The body is then worked with Shin-Jizuya, which darkens and mirrorizes the body. I usually have to go over the hardened areas again with hazuya + tojiru to keep them milky white.

 

[Edited for clarity]

For Western blades (as well as Japanese-style blades), John gives a pretty solid approach. John and others use that method to great effect on Japanese-style blades. I too have polished to #1000US, etched in ferric, then polished with Flitz, followed by pumice in baking soda water. (The baking soda is critical; it prevents rust, which will happen before your eyes even with distilled water). This seems to be a life-long quest of experimentation. I also strongly recomend Walter Sorrell's hybrid polishing DVD, worth its weight in platinum...

 

Thanks,

Edited August 12, 2009 by RedNeckLeftie

[owen bush]

I have tried quite a few things ,many mentioned above .

flitz is an amazing product .

Remember that cameras lie in the case of a good Hamon photo ,In real life hamon are a lot more subtle and elusive .

[Niko Hynninen]

??

 

Dont you guys use anymore nugui ??

 

I like it...darkens the steel nice.

 

Niko

[Brian Madigan]

I make a slurry of baking soda and very fine powdered polishing stone. I polish up to about 1500, degrease with denatured alcohol, etch in 1:5 ferric solution if necessary. I use the slurry to clean the oxides off the hamon and brighten it until I am satisfied with the shape and detail. I clean the rest of the oxides off slowly with baking soda and cloth in water.

 

I made some nugui-like substance which I've been trying out. I mixed iron oxide and lamp black ground into a really really really fine powder. It has to be really fine because scale will scratch the crap out of anything. This I mixed with seed or mineral oil and filtered through cloth to get the large particles out.

There are many kinds of nugui for different types of finishes. I'm still learning about this. They are not cheap to buy.

 

Niko: Where do you get your Nugui? do you use the different types?

Edited August 10, 2009 by toxonix

[Niko Hynninen]

I made own nugui from Iron-Oxide (Fe3O4 magnetite) also from 50-50 graphite and Fe3O4

Pottery oxide is fine powder and it dosent scratch steel.

Lubricant is oil in both..Some oils make "skin" if they are in open air!

Low viscosity is ok...baby oil,clove oil.

 

Soft piece of cotton and flod it and between them nugui...it says better this way trapped in cotton.

It needs guite a lot preasure to get it dark....but if you do it too much...steel turns brown..and you need to

take step back....and re done.

 

AND it not bad to use GOOD safety cloves ( anti cut.. kevlar/wire)

 

BR

Niko

 

 

Edit:

 

Ahh...I did make one test whit Fe2O3 hematite...but I just cant remember how it worked.

Edited August 11, 2009 by Niko Hynninen

[Brian Madigan]

Hmm. Sounds good. I like rolled cotton too. Small pieces rolled tightly.

[RedNeckLeftie]

In re-reading my earlier post, I noticed it could use some re-wording, so it's been edited. Small change, better conveyance.

 

Niko,

 

Thanks for the nugui tips, I think when I tried it, I did not use enough pressure to get a good effect. I'm guessing you learned to use gloves the hard way--like me?

 

Thanks,