Feukair

Yeah, really nice and cleanly made!

Thanks guys.

Finally, sorry for the delay, here are some pics after going through the following stones: 500, 800, 1000, 1200, 3000, and then these pics are after 4000grit stone. The last pic is after a hot vinegar etch to make the hamon show. My next objective is to try to darken the area above the hamon to give it a light grey tint, the vinegar kind of does that but it whipes off to easily. On DFogg's web site he states he's used Simichrome polish to get a grey tint. I'm going to order some and try it. Lt

Wow, not that i've read or should have known any better but I thought damascus steel was always forge welded layers of different types of steel. I had no idea that real damascus was caused by microscopic alignment of crystals in the steel like this. Amazing...

Awsome job! There are truly some gifted artists on this forum...

thx for the advice, gladly taken. yeah I'm not doing that again. this whole thing is a hobby for me but I have very little time to put into it so I need to do what I can to maximize success.

I think i'm gonna keep it for when i work with copper... I might try that waxing then etching thing, that make sense, the wax if put on in the right direction, protects the tops of the little "blades" and the etch gets underneath to cleat out and etch the underside of the blades. Thanks for all the great info!

Very nice. You've got real activity in that hammon, the little white lines leading down to the edge. That's where i hope to be someday with my tanto and wakisashi. I've read that article also. I know i've been making mistakes. I don't have a setup to heat my blades evenly and accurately to 1450 deg. Right now i work the blade back and forth trhough the forge in charcoal. That means the middle of the blade always gets the most heat as i'm going in and out of the forge, and the tip and tang end remains cooler. So by the time i get the tip or tang just past the non-magnetic them the middle is probably a little too hot. I'm still haveing a few tiny (very tiny) cracks in the blades, but they are always on the edge and in the middle where the blade get hottest. Exactly one of the causes described in that article. Also, because I travel up to my dads to use the forge at night for quenching when i'm done i drive the blade home then temper it cuz i'm too excited to wait. Not doing that anymore... Sorry to ramble in your thread... Lt

Oh, don't risk that... i'll google for it if i want it... LOL...

Cool, thanks for all the awesome info guys... If this thing wont make a good cold file for steel I might save it and later anneal it and make a little dagger out of it or the like. It's almost 3/8" thick with the teeth, so after grinding the teeth off i'd have a 1/4" bar to work with that would just need some bevels hammered in... cool... Lt

My dad gave me an old nicholson file that has some very light rust on it. It still works good but i think it would work a lot better if i could sharpen it somehow, i'm using it for when i hand shape my blades. It looks like a single cut file but each blade (or whatever you call them) has little knurls on it. The file says "Bodifile" on one side and Nicholson on the other. Is there any way i can sharpen this? FYI... i usually try to do research on questions like this before posting but googling for "how to sharpen a file" or "file sharpening" seems to only want to tell me how to sharpen the quality of an image file like in photoshop... :- thx for any help. Sorry if this is the wrong area for this post... Lt

Holy cow i think that guy in the first video that Glenn posted is using a 4lb sledge for a hammer...

Which 150 grit stone did you get? I've been thinking of getting one that rough but i don't have one yet.

I have been working on it a little. I'll get more pics up soon. What stones did you get?

Very nice.

I heat to just past non-magnetic then i quench in brine water that is at about 130-140 degrees (cuz that's the hottest the water will come from my the tap at my dads place).

Thanks John! This is getting to be alot of fun now things are working out... It is the clay pattern that creates the line. Above the line the clay is about 1/8" thick. Below the line it is only a very think coat just to cover the metal and prevent alot of oxydation while heating it in the forge. After i get that much clay on and the clay is mostly dry then i wrap it with wire and put another thin coat of clay to cover up the wire. The wire is to simply hold the clay on while you heat and quench the blade, otherwize it may ( and probably will ) be blasted of the surface of the steel in several places ruining the hamon line and/or causing the blade to warp away from those areas. I've basically been following the processes described at this site but i wait until the first layer of clay is dry before wrapping with wire, instead of wrapping while the clay is all wet. I also did not put any ashi lines on this blade with clay. I have another one that i've quenched that i did try to do that to, i'll see how that turned out when i get to polishing it. Here's a good description of the process: Claying blades