Jason W

Good evening all I have a question about my next step. This is my second attempt at a knife and my first san mai so be gentle, I know it looks like a butter knife : ) I did a "traditional" san mai where I made a well in the spike and inserted a piece of high carbon then forge welded them together and drawn it out. If you look closely you can see where the high carbon is on the edge. At this point I've hand sanded it down to 600 grit and want to know whether I should temper it then etch or etch then temper? Any comments, critiques or blasts are welcome. Cheers!

Thanks George that's great information I really appreciate it and that completely makes sense. The next one I do I'll wait to heat treat it until after I shape it. I ended up cracking about 1/8" off the tip when I tried to straighten out a minor warp. The positive part I found was a) it was definitely hard and b) I have a strong forge weld since the tip is still encased. I will have to reshape the end but that's part of the fun. Also, I'll create my own thread. Thanks again.

Good morning what a beautiful piece! I have a question for you about san mai. I tried my first san mai yesterday with a railroad spike and coilspring. I tried what I've heard is the "traditional technique" so hot cut a well in the spike and inserted a piece of high carbon. It seemed to go pretty well for my first time, I tried a heat treat in oil first but it didn't seem to harden. I may have heated the oil too much so I did a second heat treat in water, that got the file to skate. My question is, do you need to temper san mai? Sorry to high jack, I just saw an opportunity to ask someone who might be able to help. Thanks.