Hamon from a file

[Colin KC]

either he's drinking on the job, or he uses a can with the top cut off, filled with water to dunk blades in and keep them cool? ( i found that it helped)

my vote is he's drinking whilst grinding

Nah, go a big trough for that

Second guess, spot on

[Colin KC]

More pics coming up inna bit

[Colin KC]

OK, so, we have a warm, ground (80grit) blade, annealed, drill & profiled, now we need to clay it:

I use fireclay (Homebase, B&Q) made by Purimachos (Peter has their details somewhere)



Take a good dollop & break it up into smaller chunks, put into a seperate pot, add water & mix till you get a slurry:




I use various implements to add to the blade, foremost of which is my brush, I'll also use a plastic knife inna bit.

Brush your blade with the slurry all over:





I sue molegrips to hold the blade in such a way as to only allow the edge to touch anything

Then back inna oven:



Keep adding layers of clay to the spine from about 1/2 to 2/3rds the way up the blade, don't forget the area around the tang, we don't want this to get hard





Make sure each layer is dry before adding the next otherwise it will retain moisture & blow up like a balloon inna forge, ruining the whole thing.

initially, for now, we add little rat's tails with the aid of my plastic knife making blobs near the clayed spine & drawing the knife towards the edge.

It's desirable to have the same spacing & clay shape on both sides of the blade, but don't be anal about it



Unfortunately my camera became full at this stage, so you can't see the other side just yet, mebbe later, when I will be whipping it out of the oven, showing you the tools we'll be using next & giving it a dunk

[munkyman]

wow, looks like fun great turorial

[Kane]

If you get to the point of looking for a hamon and it either isn't there is isn't what you were looking for can you anneal the blade and start again?

[Colin KC]

If you get to the point of looking for a hamon and it either isn't there is isn't what you were looking for can you anneal the blade and start again?

Oh yes Kane, in fact, don't even bother annealing (that's only to make working the blade easier) just re-clay & go again (assuming of course, that it hasn't warped at all, in which case, re-normalise, straighten, normalise again, then go again)

[Colin KC]

If you go to the "One for Mik" thread & see the failed hamon, I just did exactly that to produce the nice one from the same blade

[Colin KC]

btw, now's the time to ask questions, before Stu Barker arrives & screws up my whole evening

[munkyman]

would it bhe possible to do a heat treat like that one a small knife, say with a one inch blade?

cheers

Nathan

[Colin KC]

You could do Nathan & depending on the hardening speed of the steel, it might give a hamon, or mebbe a differential ht at least, but it's prolly not gonna be very good at all, it needs a biggish palette to bring the best out

[thomas]

Lookin good!

[spamel]

I believe that vermiculite is also that messy stuff you find in gas flame effect fire places, possibly the most dangerous thing to have in a house!

[TOBY]

Great tutorial Colin
- i wud give you rep but i gotta spread the love a bit more

[Colin KC]

I believe that vermiculite is also that messy stuff you find in gas flame effect fire places, possibly the most dangerous thing to have in a house!

Err, what's dangerous about it then

[Colin KC]

Err, what's dangerous about it then

Aaah! I see, the achul fire, not the vermiculite! Duh