I want to see your Hamon

[Joshua States]

Nice one Theodore. That J.White recipe works like a charm every time. 

[Jeremy Bartlett]

Here are a few I made last year. Have a batch of 7 knives ready to heat treat tomorrow that will have a hamon...wish me luck!

 

[michael cross]

A couple of paring knives right out of the temper oven and a santokuish style knife. All three are 1095 steel. I used satanite to produce the hamon and quenched in McMaster fast quench oil heated to around 150°F

[Pieter-Paul Derks]

Here is one of mine that I am really happy with. it is really hard to photograph though, but a bit of low winter sunlight seem to do the trick.

[michael cross]

16 hours ago, Pieter-Paul Derks said:

Here is one of mine that I am really happy with. it is really hard to photograph though, but a bit of low winter sunlight seem to do the trick.

Very nice, love the bolster. Good clean line, what did you use to produce the hamon?

[Pieter-Paul Derks]

On 2/21/2019 at 2:31 AM, michael cross said:

Very nice, love the bolster. Good clean line, what did you use to produce the hamon?

Thanks! I am having a lot of fun with fabricated bolsters lately.

The blade is 1.1274 steel, the european equivalent of 1095.

I used watered down refractory glue (the kind that comes in a sealant tube), I do a thin wash over the whole blade to protect it from carburisation in my electric kiln. I actually do that on all my blades, even without hamon.

The ''waves'' of the hamon are painted on with the same stuff, only less watered down

[Joël Mercier]

A customer who commissioned a pair of kitchen knives insisted in having a hamon on the bigger one, so here it is. I am looking for pointers to get the best possible definition with what I currently got on hand. Wet/dry up to #1500, ferric chloride, hard back and foam back. 

So far it's up to #1000 and no etch yet. Don't mind the j hooks . Should I begin etching now? Should I use a soft back from here to help create topography? Should I get finer paper?

 

[Conner Michaux]

What are some steels that produce a really good Hamon? Preferably steels that a noobie could heat treat without a problem..

[Joël Mercier]

17 minutes ago, Conner Michaux said:

What are some steels that produce a really good Hamon? Preferably steels that a noobie could heat treat without a problem..

True 1075(not admiral 1075/1080), 1095, W1, W2 and the Japanese White. Of those easily available in North America, Aldo's W2 give the best hamons. 

That being said, you need either luck, a good HT setup with a thermocouple or excellent eye balling of decalescence. Preferably a mix of it all. It's also preferable to use an accelerated quench oil or water/oil interrupted quench to get more activity. Also, the lower the austenizing temp, the more activity you get but it's also easier to screw up. 

That's what I've learned about this wizardry to far .

[Conner Michaux]

2 hours ago, Joël Mercier said:

True 1075(not admiral 1075/1080), 1095, W1, W2 and the Japanese White. Of those easily available in North America, Aldo's W2 give the best hamons. 

That being said, you need either luck, a good HT setup with a thermocouple or excellent eye balling of decalescence. Preferably a mix of it all. It's also preferable to use an accelerated quench oil or water/oil interrupted quench to get more activity. Also, the lower the austenizing temp, the more activity you get but it's also easier to screw up. 

That's what I've learned about this wizardry to far .

Wizardry indeed...

[Emiliano Carrillo]

4 hours ago, Joël Mercier said:

A customer who commissioned a pair of kitchen knives insisted in having a hamon on the bigger one, so here it is. I am looking for pointers to get the best possible definition with what I currently got on hand. Wet/dry up to #1500, ferric chloride, hard back and foam back. 

So far it's up to #1000 and no etch yet. Don't mind the j hooks . Should I begin etching now? Should I use a soft back from here to help create topography? Should I get finer paper?

 

My method for bringing out hamon is to bring it to 2000-2500 and etch lightly in diluted ferric, then under running water you can wet sand with 3000 grit paper or anything that will very gently remove the oxides. I use 3K silicon carbide powder now to do this instead. If you are going to do a lot of hamon I would say definitely get some of the fine powder and use it like finger stones with light oil and a cotton pad for backing. 

This helps to whiten the hamon and show any other activities in the steel in the case of bloom/pattern weld. 

[Joël Mercier]

@Emiliano Carrillo thank you sir! I'll see what I can find. I am in Canada and I've had difficulty sourcing such materials so far. If I can't find powder, would a foam pad and 2500 paper with locally applied pressure on the nioi/ashi/yô somehow help whiten it up? 

[Emiliano Carrillo]

6 hours ago, Joël Mercier said:

@Emiliano Carrillo thank you sir! I'll see what I can find. I am in Canada and I've had difficulty sourcing such materials so far. If I can't find powder, would a foam pad and 2500 paper with locally applied pressure on the nioi/ashi/yô somehow help whiten it up? 

That should help! Search Amazon and eBay, that's where I have had the best luck, never found any locally! 

[Joël Mercier]

Here's what the first dip in ferric revealed. I believe it will be worth experimenting. It is by far the most activity I've had in a hamon, well, of the 4 I've made...

Edit: ok, I think I've got this hamon thing almost figured out. I did a short dip in ferric and gently removed the oxydes with 1500 paper I had previously worn out against itself, because I had no 3000 in stock. I think it worked! Thanks again!

Here's the result:

Re edit: YouTube links seem broken...

Edited March 5, 2019 by Joël Mercier

[Doug Webster]

This is an interesting video on recalesence.  I don't understand the metallurgy science but it helps me understand better what steel is doing during annealing.  Question is when would you quench for the perfect hamon?  

https://youtu.be/33neAGXxZ94

Edited April 17, 2019 by Doug Webster
Spelling

[Joël Mercier]

16 minutes ago, Doug Webster said:

This is an interesting video on recalesence.  I don't understand the metallurgy science but it helps me understand better what steel is doing during annealing.  Question is when would you quench for the perfect hamon?  

https://youtu.be/33neAGXxZ94

The change of phase in the steel requires energy. That energy is sucked from photons(light) so that's why a shadow appears and moves throughout the blade. The steel isn't actually colder where the shadow is.

 

[Alan Longmire]

As for when to quench for hamon, that is complicated by the clay hiding the decalescence in the spine.  Since hamon is produced by different phases of crystal structure, it's a good bet to quench as soon as the shadows are gone from the edge.  That guarantees full hardness on the edge.  With the shallow-hardening steels you have to use for hamon, this will ensure a band of transitional structures along the clay line.  That said, on super-shallow hardening steels like homemade steel, you will get hamon without clay.  

[Joël Mercier]

I managed to get a pic of almost all the hamon showing up. Any tricks on how to shoot those properly?  A good portion of the yô just won't appear in any pics I take. 

[Eric Morgan]

That’s absolutely gorgeous!

[Emiliano Carrillo]

On 4/17/2019 at 4:06 PM, Alan Longmire said:

As for when to quench for hamon, that is complicated by the clay hiding the decalescence in the spine.  Since hamon is produced by different phases of crystal structure, it's a good bet to quench as soon as the shadows are gone from the edge.  That guarantees full hardness on the edge.  With the shallow-hardening steels you have to use for hamon, this will ensure a band of transitional structures along the clay line.  That said, on super-shallow hardening steels like homemade steel, you will get hamon without clay.  

I've done some experimenting with my oroshigane in this vein. This one is a failed katana blade that was cut up and re purposed, the tip section was used as practice to better my control over the color and my eye. It has a powerful habuchi with very tight choji/hitatsura hamon reminiscent of ichimonji work, as well as slanted ashi near the tip based on the angle that the blade was quenched into the water. If I remember right this was a very quick interrupted quench, as in a quenched for about a half second, took it out of the water for a split second, and then straight back in for the rest. This allows the hitatsura to form, islands of hardening all over the blade, that have an interesting shape based on the vapor jacket coming off the blade in the water. I have gotten double and triple layered hamon from doing a very quick succession of interrupted quenchings in this steel before as well. I have had limited success doing that particular technique in modern steel. At any rate you're absolutely right that these things just want to take hamon in ultra shallow hardening steels! I have photos of a seax blade I made from bloom and hearth material that took hamon. I can't find the photos but I'll attach a video I did find.

And the seax. I've posted it here before but it has been repolished with the techniques I outlined above in this thread for polishing japanese blades. The two videos are out of order and I can't fix it, but at any rate the seax is first and the tanto second.

Edited April 22, 2019 by Emiliano Carrillo

[joe pierre]

Some hamon from my latest projects:

IMG_2735 by drjoe4, on Flickr

more here: 

IMG_1680 by drjoe4, on Flickr

more here: 

 

[Eric Morgan]

I’m almost ashamed to have my work in the same thread as you guys, but this is also my first hamon ever, so I gotta share it 

 

I made this blade, which was promptly claimed by my oldest daughter as her own, from 3/16 1095. This pic I did use an HDR filter to show the hamon better, but this is also only at 320 grit. I used Rutland’s furnace cement and quenched in warm Canola oil 

[Doug Webster]

Here's a strange hamon starting to reveal itself after 3 cycles of etching and polishing.  There looks like a secondary hamon near the blade edge.  I am not sure if I like this or I should try again. 

[Theodore An.]

 

Some crazy hamon activity right here..What is this above the hamon line?Carbon banding?Alloy banding?

The steel is a good old made in Usa  Nikolshon file forged to shape...Water quenched and polish to 800 grit and quick etch with feriic chloride 

to see whats going on...

IMG_20190516_100916 by theodore Anastoulis, on Flickr

IMG_20190516_115128 by theodore Anastoulis, on Flickr

IMG_20190516_115142 by theodore Anastoulis, on Flickr

IMG_20190516_115205 by theodore Anastoulis, on Flickr

[Joël Mercier]

Looks like alloy banding