Perplexed!!!! Flaw??

Gahagan

Gahagan

Well-Known Member
Ok I have taken this knife down to 1000 grit two times and each time I etch it it looks like it has 36 grit scratches just at the tip. I have no idea what is going on. Has anyone seen this before or had it happen to them? The blade material is W2 I got from from Aldo about 1.5 years ago.
 
Well, that sure is weird. W2 from Aldo about 1.5 years ago, huh? If it was the stuff under .25", especially the 1/8" stuff, it did have some problems. Particularly, IIRC, would not harden properly. Not exactly sure what the problem was with that batch. Aldo suspected it got too hot during rolling. I've made a few knives from the stuff.....the first I had problems with the final finish looking spotty, but not scratchy like your photo. Also, once I normalized the "problem" steel thoroughly, any problems went away. I don't think I helped you any. That is weird. You're SURE you got out all scratches before moving on to the next grit? Interesting!!
 
It is 3/8 thick. I am sure everything was gone between each grit. I worked it to 1000 grit twice it was without scratch when I etched it both times. This spot when etched was still silver when the rest was black.
 
There is no belt. I grind to 400 with the belt and then hand sand from 220 to 600 in a criss cross patern and then from 800 to 1000 the length of the blade.
 
Is it some sort of odd hamon? I've blown it up on my screen and it doesn't look like scratches to me.

Greg
 
That ti what I am trying to figure out. It is completely smooth you cant feel it when you run you finger across it or even try to catch it with your finger nail.
 
What grit was it at when you did your heat treat? I've seen decarb from the bottom of belt scratches show up in an etch when it was otherwise invisible and all actual scratches were polished out. More with damascus than with attempts at hamon, but I still bet that's what it is.
 
80 grit before ht. but that is definatly a possibility. I have never seen it before. What do i do to fix it?
 
Have you checked that it's flat there on the point? It just looks to me like there could be a shallow hollow that protects that spot from abrasive. Just a guess.

Doug
 
I just ran over it agin with 1000 grit and it completely disappeared. I then just rubed etchant over the blade skipping the tip and it turned out fine.
 
I've run into this once or twice, it always seems to follow how the blade was sanded before hardening. I think Travis may well be right, or at least it is the best theory I've heard yet...:)

Glad you got it fixed.
 
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