What's going on in your shop?

I decided to spend this weekend trying a new damascus pattern, the feather pattern. I started with a 17 layer billet.



Once I started forging, I figured I would try to make crushed w's to make the feather pattern out of. I've never made either pattern, so there was a lot of trial and error. Definitely learned some things and would do a couple steps different next time. The crushed w's came out pretty good.




When stacking and forge welding the last time, I almost lost everything, but was able to put it back together and finish.



Here's the blade forged from the billet. It's not perfect, but I'm satisfied with it for my first time with this pattern.


 
Heikki said:
...I just need to find out how Opaul gets his 1084 hamons to work :)
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If chasing hamon is your goal, strike 1084 from your thoughts and process. Most any carbon steel will show some sort of differential hardening if you either edge quench (not really hamon) or glob some clay on the spine, quench it and etch it. That doesn't mean its suitable for hamon.

1084, 5160, 80crv2 and many others are not really steels suitable for hamon. But a lot if makers still throw some clay on there and quench it and call it hamon, in reality its not much different than an edge quench.
 
J. Doyle said:
If chasing hamon is your goal, strike 1084 from your thoughts and process. Most any carbon steel will show some sort of differential hardening if you either edge quench (not really hamon) or glob some clay on the spine, quench it and etch it. That doesn't mean its suitable for hamon.

1084, 5160, 80crv2 and many others are not really steels suitable for hamon. But a lot if makers still throw some clay on there and quench it and call it hamon, in reality its not much different than an edge quench.
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I'm assuming that's why 1084 doesn't show much activity then. It's what I've had on hand to experiment with, though I recently picked up some W2 to try out.

That brings up another question: would soft spots show up when etching and polishing the steel, as in if the HT process didn't get everything in solution completely? Speaking of W2, not 1084. Wondering if there would be a visual cue vs. only detectable by hardness tester.
 
Heikki said:
I'm assuming that's why 1084 doesn't show much activity then. It's what I've had on hand to experiment with, though I recently picked up some W2 to try out.

That brings up another question: would soft spots show up when etching and polishing the steel, as in if the HT process didn't get everything in solution completely? Speaking of W2, not 1084. Wondering if there would be a visual cue vs. only detectable by hardness tester.
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If there were soft spots that didn't harden, then yes, I'd say that would likely be visible in the etch. If you had spots that hardened but some weren't as hard as others, I'm not so sure you'd notice a difference in that.

If you wanted to chase hamon, the only widely readily available steels I can think of are w1 drill rod and 1095.

I don't know of any place that sells reliably predictable w2 of any spec, or 1075 that is low enough in manganese.

Then there is Hitachi white but I'm not sure that's readily available. 26c3 seems like decent steel but the hamon potential in my experience left me underwhelmed.

If you wanted to jump through some hoops and wade through some potential issues, there are some w2 and low manganese 1075 options.

For good hamon activity, it needs to be a low alloy, shallow hardening steel. That means keeping the levels of elements that aid in hardenability down on the lower end.

Most know about manganese as an aid to hardenability, but chromium and I believe silicon can also have a significant effect.

So a steel with low manganese but moderate amounts of chromium and silicon (such as 26c3) might actually thwart efforts for a super active hamon.

I'm by no means an expert on it and what exactly all those elements do and in what quantities are topics better answered by those more in the know than I.

Have you already experienced issue a with w2? I wouldn't be at all surprised.
 
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