Redwood Burl and Forged W2 with Hamon

silver_pilate

silver_pilate

Well-Known Member
This is a little knife I delivered today. I forged it out of Don's W-2 and clay quenched the blade for a hamon. It has a full distal taper and a gently tapered tang and the balance is just right. The handle scales are made from some of Mark's (Burl Source) amazing redwood burl with red spacers and corbys. Unfortunately, I let it go before I took a ruler to it for specs, but it's going tobe similar to my other EDC's at 3.5" blade and around 4" handle. Thanks for looking!

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--nathan
 
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Looks great Nathan! Is that the '40's extra-hard redwood from Burl Source? I have some that I bought from Mark a while back, and this makes me excited to put it to use.
 
Nathan,

I always love the nice clean look of your knives... and your handles are always finished-out to perfection. This knife is no different. 2thumbs That redwood burl is fantastic.

But...

Isnt' the hamon getting awefully close to the edge? There's definitely some martensitic "meat" there... but not much. Is this what you were shooting for?... or are you still on a learning curve with Don's W2?

BTW... based on your recommendation, I now have a box of Don's W2 (forged down by Michael Pikula) daring me to start a new project. :D I just need to finish up some current work first. :eek:

Erin
 
Erin, yes the hamon's a bit closer than I'd like, but there's plenty of hardened steel left for a servicable knife edge. I'd like to raise the hamon up maybe 1/4" or so. I am still in the learning curve with this steel. My first hamon turned out similarly, and this time I used thinner clay and moved it farther up from the edge. :confused:

I think a couple of things: I may drop my kiln temperature just a tad. I was at 1450F for this knife. I'm going to experiment and see if I can get closer to critical, maybe in the 1430-1440 range. Also, I've been dipping in the Park's #50 for three seconds, pulling it out for three seconds, and then back in to cool, and I think I'm going to stay in the quench a little longer after the initial quench with a little less time out, maybe half a second or so more and less on my "guestimation-imagination timer". :D.

I'll tell you that you'll love this W2. It takes a GREAT edge and finishes very nicely.

--nathan
 
the knife is beautiful and i like the sheath as well. the sheath is very nice. i like the clean lines
 
Nice! The knife is really nice, Im diggin the redwood.

THAT IS SOME STRAIGHT F-IN STITCHING, the sheath is awesome! A lot of people dont understand how hard that is to do. Good Job.
 
Nathan, would you be willing to share your 'recipe' for finishing that redwood? It really looks great and I'd like to try to achieve some similar results when I get around to using mine.
 
You bet, PJ. I shaped the bulk of the handle with a 36 blaze, profiling on the platen and then going to a slack belt to avoid heat build up. I followed that up with a 120 and 220 and 400. I then filled the voids and checks with superglue and let it set up. I took a few brief passes with the 400 belt to remove excess glue and the started sanding by hand at 320 working up to 1500 grit. Once there, I applied multiple coats of Danish oil until it stopped taking it up and then buffed by hand with a cloth.

Thanks for the comments everyone. Frosstyx, thanks for the comments. My sheaths are better than they used to be. I do hate hand stitching, but I love the results.

--nathan
 
As usual Nathan fantastic work. I have some of that Redwood myself, but I'm saving it up both for something special and more importantly when I actually get good at this game.
 
Great looking knife and sheath2thumbs
Where do you get your metal clips that on the back of your sheaths?

God bless,Keith
 
Keith, I get them fom my local Tandy. They're not necessarily normal stock, but the guy who runs this Tandy store buys them from a supplier to make gun sheaths and phone pouches and the like. They have some that are similar on KnifeKits.com, but not in black. Here's the one I'm referring to. The black one they have is set up differently, though it looks the same.

--nathan
 
Thanks Nathan, sounds not too much different from your Ironwood recipe (from my recollection.) Hopefully I can get similar results when I get around to using mine!
 
silver_pilate said:
Erin, yes the hamon's a bit closer than I'd like, but there's plenty of hardened steel left for a servicable knife edge. I'd like to raise the hamon up maybe 1/4" or so. I am still in the learning curve with this steel. My first hamon turned out similarly, and this time I used thinner clay and moved it farther up from the edge. :confused:

I think a couple of things: I may drop my kiln temperature just a tad. I was at 1450F for this knife. I'm going to experiment and see if I can get closer to critical, maybe in the 1430-1440 range. Also, I've been dipping in the Park's #50 for three seconds, pulling it out for three seconds, and then back in to cool, and I think I'm going to stay in the quench a little longer after the initial quench with a little less time out, maybe half a second or so more and less on my "guestimation-imagination timer". :D.

I'll tell you that you'll love this W2. It takes a GREAT edge and finishes very nicely.

--nathan
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Nathan that is a beautiful knife great finish. Nice Hamon Try the w-2 at about 1500 its better for hamon If you have about 100 degree difference between blade spine and edge . edge being the hotter, then do 4-5 sec in parks , and 1 hr at 400 . the more you heat your blade after quenching ,will diminish your hamon . I noticed you use kiln so It may be tough to get that 100 degree diff. If you can get in the critical range ,It will produce itsuri or some call double hamon . I hope this helped someone . Bubba
 
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