Hey guys, I'm a 15 year old who loves to build knives and my newest project is building a Katana like machete.

The steel that Im using is tool steel, and I was wondering. Im using the classic clay + charcoal mix for the hamon clay and would I still to be able to polish the machete with jewelers Rouge?

without killing the hamon lines after the quench and temper. 

Il will post pictures before the quench.

And whats are the steps of making a hamon line? and idk if this matters but, I use bark for my forge fuel if this matters.

stating you are using tools steel is like saying I am eating cooked food. If you use the proper alloy, you may get a nice hamon,  incorrect tools steel will not give a hamon,  It would be easier if you read more before starting,  there is too much for me to repeat it.

Hello Crack, I am new to the Hamon process as well. I have attempted two the first failed because my clay came off in quench and the second was successful so my knowledge here is mainly academic.  I would suggest you search here for previous topics on Hamons and if you cannot find what you want go to youtube and search for a video on the topic.  There are several good videos there that helped me a lot.  A few things the guys here will want to know is specifically what kind of steel are you using?  D-2, A-2, O-1 etc.  Some steels take a Hamon better than others, also, what quench medium will you be using?  I would also tell them what you will be using to etch the blade as well.  I use white vinegar first and later I hand rubbed mine with lemon juice and a cotton make up pad I got at the drug store.  I was happy with my results the second time but I do not feel qualified to instruct you on the steps involved in the process.

I was trying my best to find out what type of tool steel it was but it was from a huge crow bar.

So I suggest you test a piece of it FIRST to see if you can get a hamon with it.  Otherwise you are going to put in a lot of work on something that may not do what you want it to do.

And I was going to suggest he read a book before wasting a bunch of time.

Frosty The Lucky.

well the clay stayed on during heat treating but.. the blade warped i tried fixing it and, snap.. but I managed to take a piece of the blade a make decent sized combat knife out of it.

On 4/29/2016 at 4:42 PM, CrackOhStartNew said:

I was trying my best to find out what type of tool steel it was but it was from a huge crow bar.

For future reference, steel used on a tool does not nessesitate tool steel. Tool steel is a specific class of steel. A, D, H, and O series are some common ones. If you decided to use a crowbar for steel it could be anywhere from mild steel to 1075 to 41xx or 43xx. "Crowbar" is not specific. Allow varies depending on manufacturer. 

Remember the russian Ti crowbars being sold at one time?  Back before the A,D,H,O series were defined high carbon steel was sometimes called tool steel and I admit I sometimes refer to it that way even nowadays.

ya forgot to mention P, W, M, and F series

52 minutes ago, Steve Sells said:

ya forgot to mention P, W, M, and F series

I also forgot S series. Lol