Whats on the workbench
It has been a long time since I have made any metalwork, and I have been asked by both @knfitaly and @docsmith if I wouldnt posts some swordmaking soon
Well. As both of you know, knife and swordmaking is hot and timeconsuming , and its been plenty hot around here for the last weeks, the hottest May in more than 100 years actually. also I havent had much time so to stay creative I have chosen the easy path . the stuff that I can work on in the train , when commuting etc.
Sadly swordmaking is not such a thing. I guess people would look weirdly at me if I took hammer and anvil with me in the train :-)
To alleviate this obvious shortcoming in my postings lately I have decided to show you all, two of the projects on my workbench.
The small (nasty looking) blade , is for a main gauche, a parrying dagger used together with a rapier.
the big one is the humble beginnings into what will hopefully be my first ever KATANA!! yes I have started working on a katana. It will be a simple monosteel katana, but I consider making it my first attempt at a Hamon(probably a recipe for disaster to make such a long blade my first try at this)
anyways , I hope you enjoyed. I have no idea when I will finish these two, but I cant wait.
Thanks for reading this. Im EvilHippie, a compulsive creative and jack o' trades. If you want to know more about me, check out my introduction post here
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Yey, blades!!!
I totally get you - you couldn't pay me enough to forge in the summer (or spring this hot).
The dagger does look wicked.
Katana: awesome! What steel are you using and how do you plan to quench it?
I'm doing brine-interrupted quench for my hamons and I'm shitting my pants with every blade, and they are waaay shorter than katana :)
If you could film the quench that would be awesome ;)
I have no idea how i will do it, but any suggestions are welcome. the steel is a fairly lowcarbon springsteel. its close to EN45 if memory serves me right. Trying to get a film of it is an excellent idea though. thanks.
If it's similar to EN45 you'll have a hard time getting the hamon, because the manganese content could be too high.
Check this - some guys have apparently done it.
I use 1095 for hamon which has under 0.4% Mn so is fairly easy to get the hamon to pop up.
As for quenching, I really have no experience with EN45 or anything similar. But in my experience, the more aggressive the quench is the more pronounced the hamon is - that's why I do 3-4 sec in brine than out and into the warm veg oil.
My creativity is also burned away a recent weeks by the heat...
yeah heatwaves are for chilling in the shade with cold beers
Nice. Can't wait to see how the Katana turns out !
me neither :-)
The parrying dagger is the most beautiful of the both of them. But well, we might just have to wait till your Katana comes out fully.
@evilhippie, after checking out your miniatures I think you'd be interested in @steemmonsters headed by @aggroed and @yabapmatt
Thanks for the heads up. i will check it out.
Difficult to make a katana! but I'm sure you can do it. For the heat treatment with hamon ... mhmmm I try to hear our colleagues on the BIK (bastard inside knife lab... see on FB) and also Achim Wirtz
a greeting, nicola
For the hamon Achim Wirtz replay:
Cr 0,4 = problem
But the real problem is the 2 % Si.
Better make a truck spring from it :) :)
I am pretty sure the Si content is lower in this steel . it isnt EN45, just something app. similar. But I am convinced that I should probably do some testing first on a few sacrificial pieces beofre I spent too much time on trying to do a Hamon on this one
A hamon? Just the differential-hardening effect or will you also be folding and laminating the steel?
Curious people want to know 8-).
yes I tend to get a little carried away and forget that the insider lingo might not be obvious for everybody. the Hamon is the (usually ) wavy line that is the telltale sign of a differential hardening. It might be differentially hardened without a visible hamon though. Monosteel is knifelingo for the opposite of folded steel. Unfortunately I havent ventured into folding steel. mainly because it is tremendously time consuming to do if you dont have a powerhammer. I dream of getting one though
You would probably have to laminate besides folding as well.
I have held and inspected some old Japanese swords that were honsanmai or even more complex, but I have only really handled much later swords, all kobuse, I think. A fair bit of work went into all of them.
Pulling off a good hamon on maru is hard enough, I think 8-).
Yes Thats true. I envy you for having had the opportunity to handle some of the real ones. I have only had the pleasure once, many years ago in kyoto, and the owner of the shop was hovering over me the whole time, close to panic about the weird Gaijin who wanted to inspect the Hamon and the patternweld-lines :-)