Anglo-Saxon Broken-Back Seax

[Jake Powning]

This is a blade influenced by some of the Anglo Saxon artifacts in the British Museum. The grip and scabbard are carved birdseye maple, and the blade is marquenched 1084, some of the last of that excellent steel I had left since they stopped making it.

blade - marquenched 1084

blade length -14 3/8"

blade width - 1 1/8"

grip length - 5 7/8"

spacers - bronze and leather

wood - birdseye maple

http://forums.dfoggknives.com/uploads/post-99-1137971822.jpg

[Tiffers]

That is absolutely beautiful. Any chance of a few close-up pictures?

Tiffers

[ggfh666]

Oh no, not again.

Every time I see one of Jake's pieces I feel unwell.
He's one of my favorites.

[BorderReiver]

Simply stunning.:happy22:

[Inspector71]

Jeepers! :love29:

That's amazing work. Thanks Jake, just looking at a piccy of it makes me that little bit happier.

Cheers,
Rod

[Singeblister]

That's amazing work, I love the carving , i am a firm fan of Celtic design :)

[savantuk]

That's an astonishing piece of work, as much for the carving as for the blade.

Seaxes just don't get much better than that!!

[MotorbikeMan]

That is stunning, just stunning :happy22: :happy22:

[jhobson]

Awsome. As usual.

I confess my ignorance - how do you do marquench. I could look it up but I'd like to provoke discussion.


Good to see you here. 'Junior member' 'Rep15'. A bit misleading really.

[Habaki]

Classic work sir!!, quite stunning.
Regards,
Simon.:)

[Danzo]

That's incredible. Superb work as always.

Danzo

[Jake Powning]

Thanks for the compliments.
Ok Marquenching. Marqenching involves quenching a blade in a low temperature salt bath. essensially the salts (potasium nitrate and sodium nitrate) are very conductive and bring whatever you put in them to their temperatue very quickly. so the blade is heated to 1500F then quenched in the salts wich are 475F this brings the steel past the 'purlite nose' or the point where the steel will turn into purlite, and converts it to martensite, but without dramatically stressing it by bringing it down to room temperature. basically for longer blades this makes a very durable blade, I've taken swords that I heat treated with this tequnique and bent them well past 90 degrees without taking a set. The Nitrate salts are a serious hastle to work with though:rolleyes:
you can also make bainite with these salts if you want to hang your blade in the salts for hours after quenching. The salts are very good for temperring also because they are in a liquid form there is no atmosphere and you don't get warping and stuff.

[Edgehog]

Staggeringly good. Thanks for showing us.

[Kane]

You think that's good - check out Grettir's Seax on Jakes website :O :O :O

When the lottery comes in (it's due tonight apparently :rolleyes: ) I'm having one of those (among others lol)

Kane

[jhobson]

you can also make bainite

How long do you leave in salts in marquench? I guess you only have to get it past the 'nose' so it only needs to be seconds, not minutes. You have to take it down to room temp somehow. Do you just pull it out and air cool or do you let it cool more slowly to make the most of the less stressful quench?
So a marquench ends up with very similar microstructure as a oil/water quench, but should have less internal stress?

I was at a Doc Price hammerin where Howard Clark talked about bainite ... but I was so ignorant back then that most of what he said didn't stick. Bainite is a very different structure isn't it? Is it just as hard as martensite or is it a little softer but much tougher? So would banite make sense for small knives, where cutting edge performance is all, or is it really best to save it for swords?
And can you get the differential hardness across the blade i.e. can you clay bake and quench, leave to cook bainite, and still get beautiful hamon?

[Jake Powning]

How long do you leave in salts in marquench? I guess you only have to get it past the 'nose' so it only needs to be seconds, not minutes. You have to take it down to room temp somehow. Do you just pull it out and air cool or do you let it cool more slowly to make the most of the less stressful quench?
So a marquench ends up with very similar microstructure as a oil/water quench, but should have less internal stress?

I was at a Doc Price hammerin where Howard Clark talked about bainite ... but I was so ignorant back then that most of what he said didn't stick. Bainite is a very different structure isn't it? Is it just as hard as martensite or is it a little softer but much tougher? So would banite make sense for small knives, where cutting edge performance is all, or is it really best to save it for swords?
And can you get the differential hardness across the blade i.e. can you clay bake and quench, leave to cook bainite, and still get beautiful hamon?
a marquenched blade is martensite but it's just been put under less stress in the heat treat so it's quite a bit tougher. I quench it until its stopps bubling just like in oil, it might stay in the quench pot for 30 seconds or a minute and then I take it out straighten it and let it air cool. At 475F air cooling isn't adding any stress to the steel.
bainite, as I understand it, is a bit softer than martensite but much tougher, it's kind of in between martensite and purlite, not great for edge retension but virtually indestructible. the clay coat doesn't work for bainite, the way howard gets his hamons on bainite blades is his secret, but he makes blades with a martensite edge and a bainite spine. He doesn't use clay to achieve that though. basically quenching in salts with a clay coat on, you might get a bit of a quench line, though I doubt it, but leaving it in there for six hours (to form bainite) the blade would very quickly become a uniform heat and the clay just wouldn't be doing anything. the salts are super conductive, so they will turn whatever you put in them to the same temperature that the're at very quickly. for really amazing traditional hamons I think even Howard Clark still uses water.
I don't think there would be much benifit making small knives out of bainite, unless you want to use them for crowbars and not cutting:rolleyes: I'ts definately a sword heat treat. personally I am just as happy with the marquenched steel, it's very tough and springy but it also holds a good edge.