First hamon!

IanBryant

Well-Known Member
It was there, I was happy...it was gone, I panicked...it's there. It isn't as prominent as I would like (how do I go about making it show more btw?)

I have been staying up way past my bedtime working on this and it apparently paid off. Just when I had almost given up, it showed up.

Sorry for rambling, I'm tired, sleep deprived and excited....picture...
 

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following.... about to try my first one as well.

The links that DeMo posted below are a lot of help. I ran into a couple of hiccups along the way mostly because I'm adventurous and impatient with a tendency to try to "wing it" or improvise....my advice is don't be like me.
 
Thanks demo...by the way. I doubt I would have had any level of success without those tutorials they're great guidelines.
 
The mistakes I made...or at least the things I will be taking measures to avoid next time are 1) I believe I left too much stock to grind before heat treat, .04 should be sufficient but I left almost twice that.
2) I had my draw temperature too low for the first two tempers thereby risking a brittle edge so I did a 3rd draw at home in the kitchen.
3) the worst and most unavoidable mistake: I didn't catch all my mistakes.
 
Update...been up past my bedtime again...
I did a little more polishing and sat down with one of those make up pad thingies and rubbed FC on it until the hamon was quite visible (looked like the blades in the Ryan W. Tutorials as far as depth of darkness and contrast) this was an exciting development...so having the etch where I wanted it is sprayed it down with windex and rinsed it with the hose...it disappeared...everything just turned grey....what did I do wrong? Or miss?

I may try and go through the process again tonight or tomorrow and take pictures.
 
After etching, the steel will be very dark and usually two tone if all went well. The hardened steel will be black and the unhardened steel above dark gray. But this is just residue from the etching. That will scrub away with a little light rubbing or even rinsing. You probably will need to polish the blade then, to some degree at least, with something.

You could try flitz metal polish, auto buffing compound, loose abrasives or even 1200 or 1500 grit sandpaper. This will start to really show what's there and what isn't.

A good quick easy thing to clearly see what's there is to etch heavily, like 30-45 seconds completely immersed in the ferric chloride, not just wiped on then spray it with windex and scrub it with baking soda or comet cleaner on a cotton pad. This will scrub away the black and dark gray residue and leave everything a more uniform dull gray color, but at this point the hamon line should be easily visible. Then you can try your various polishings from there to highlight and accent the line and any other activity.

One other thing to mention....it is imperative that your blade is completely free of any oils or contaminates of any kind. These will mess with your etch. You also want to make sure that all the scale/decarb from heat treating is ground away and a good even finish is on your blade.

In your original pic, there are some shiny spots that look like either scale or decarb left from heat treating or else something that you cleaned the blade prior to etching with that didn't get completely removed.
 
I found some pics that might help:

First, here's a blade right out of the etch with NOTHING done to it yet:


Next, heres the blade scrubbed with baking soda, note the more uniform gray color but a stark black vivid hamon line:


Then here's what it looks like as you start to refine and polish the hamon:


And finally finished with a bright polish:



Here's one I did with a dark finish:



And here's a set, showing one of each type:
 
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After etching, the steel will be very dark and usually two tone if all went well. The hardened steel will be black and the unhardened steel above dark gray. But this is just residue from the etching. That will scrub away with a little light rubbing or even rinsing. You probably will need to polish the blade then, to some degree at least, with something.

You could try flitz metal polish, auto buffing compound, loose abrasives or even 1200 or 1500 grit sandpaper. This will start to really show what's there and what isn't.

A good quick easy thing to clearly see what's there is to etch heavily, like 30-45 seconds completely immersed in the ferric chloride, not just wiped on then spray it with windex and scrub it with baking soda or comet cleaner on a cotton pad. This will scrub away the black and dark gray residue and leave everything a more uniform dull gray color, but at this point the hamon line should be easily visible. Then you can try your various polishings from there to highlight and accent the line and any other activity.

One other thing to mention....it is imperative that your blade is completely free of any oils or contaminates of any kind. These will mess with your etch. You also want to make sure that all the scale/decarb from heat treating is ground away and a good even finish is on your blade.

In your original pic, there are some shiny spots that look like either scale or decarb left from heat treating or else something that you cleaned the blade prior to etching with that didn't get completely removed.

Thank you that write up was what I needed, I appreciate your patience.
...and those are some beautiful knives.

I have been cleaning the blade with denatured alcohol before etching...seemed like a good idea....is there any way to undo the damage from contaminants or do I just have to live with it?
 
Notice too, the trash can full of sandpaper in the background of the fourth photo. I know somewhere in the shop is an empty 55 gallons n drum of elbow grease.
 
Notice too, the trash can full of sandpaper in the background of the fourth photo. I know somewhere in the shop is an empty 55 gallons n drum of elbow grease.

Haha....good eye Calvin! You're right on the money. A good hamon is as much work or more than finishing damascus. Takes a lot of sanding and polishing and a lot of patience.
 
Thank you that write up was what I needed, I appreciate your patience.
...and those are some beautiful knives.

I have been cleaning the blade with denatured alcohol before etching...seemed like a good idea....is there any way to undo the damage from contaminants or do I just have to live with it?

You should be able to sand it down with 800 grit or so and get rid of that stuff pretty easy if it's contaminated. If it's scale/decarb....not so much. In that case, you'd have to grind or sand with some coarser grits.

Prior to etching, I always wash my blades with dishsoap and baking soda and rinse with hot water. I know for a fact that dishsoap and baking soda will both rinse away completely with hot water and leave no trace. Dishsoap is awesome for removing oils and grease and baking soda is a VERY VERY mild abrasive that will scrub away and surface film or crud. The two together work quite well and guarantee me a clean blade every time.
 
Okay so my agenda tonight is to sand the spots from the grease being on the blade off, cleaning with soap and water/baking soda, re etching and then more polishing...and probably a trip to the hardware store for more sandpaper and more polishing.

Thanks for the help, I think my biggest problem here is patience. I'll follow through with what I've been given and either post more questions or results.
Thanks again.
 
...also, how did you get the dark finish on that blade? It looks awesome and I intend to attempt it possibly on this knife. I don't have any flitz but I will attempt to polish with some diamond compound (6 and 3 micron I believe...I have some coarser stuff in my box at work)
 
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Okay,update time.I ended up having to go back to a 240 belt to clean up the contaminant marks. I etched and polished with a paste of dish soap and baking soda then washed and repeated and the hamon showed. Thank you again Mr Doyle. I have a plan (remember the "adventurous " thing?) to try for a dark hamon pretty much involving etching and light polishes with baking soda paste.
I did make a new development that caused me to invent swear words. With all the hand polishing, I put somewhat of an edge on the blade so to avoid "polish fever" (a condition similar to cabin fever caused by sitting in one spot polishing steel for hours on end) I decided to whack a 2x4 with the knife a few times ..and wow...it did stuff...aside from taking a nice chunk,it also nicked the blade...I still feel a little sick when I think about it...so I have that going for me too.

Also, hamons are hard.
 
Thanks demo...by the way. I doubt I would have had any level of success without those tutorials they're great guidelines.

You are most welcome. You are right - hamons are hard!!!

Having pictures and an explanation helps me tremendously. Google is your friend!

DeMo
 
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