Hamons and 1095

WaltE99

WaltE99

Fickle Bastard Blades
Joined
Oct 5, 2015
Messages
179
Hello all. I have some 1095 and want to try my hand at making a hamon on a Chef's knife. Since the steel is pretty thin, I was thinking of doing all grinding post-heat treat to reduce warping. Will I be able to get a hamon in this manner or do I need to do some rough grinding as I do on my other knives before heat treat?

Thanks!
 
I grind the bevels about 1/2 way up as the wedge shape helps with the hamon.
 
Unless it is .060", I would pre-grind a basic bevel first. 1095 is shallow hardening, and that is why it will form a hamon.
 
Last edited:
Thanks all. As far as thickness goes, it started as .125" but it was decidedly non-flat. I ground to get it flat and reduce thickness somewhat, getting to a point that I liked. I didn't put the caliper on it, but I would say that it is >.060".

By the way, it still was not totally flat, so I used a jig that I use sometimes after 1st temper. What a lesson in frustration! Does anyone have a good idea on how to flatten steel pre-heat treat? I've got 8 sq. ft. of this stuff. Yikes!

Thanks,
Walt
 
WaltE99 said:
By the way, it still was not totally flat,
Click to expand...
It might not be necessary to be "totally flat".

Starting with .125" and ending up with .060" to get it not totally flat would be frustrating.

Grinding thin stock causes warping, straighten before continuing grinding.

A surface grinder would be the best fix for this situation, but still need to learn how to straight a warp.
I use my hands, or hammer and anvil.
 
Last edited:
Thanks. There is certainly a lot of equipment I would love to have, but at present the wanter and the getter are not in alignment;-) A surface grinder of some sort would be on the list. Also, besides not having enough getter to go along with the wanter, I don't have any space for more gear.

Walt
 
Bend your steel straight and do a stress relieve cycle. That will fix most warp problems. If you don’t stress relieve, the steel tends to pull back to the original bend when heat treating.
 
Thanks. I'll try that. I'm relatively new period and especially to heat treat. I assume you are talking about heating to critical and letting it air cool to room temp. Am I correct?
 
I just checked the Search Engine briefly and see that Stress Relief is sub-critical.

The only temp I see mentioned is 1200F but that is mostly for O-1. Does that sound right for 1095, as well?

How long should it soak at that temp before air cooling?

Thanks again!
 
1200f for two hours will do the trick. You need an oven. No need to protect the steel, as decarb is inversely related to temp. At 1200f, decarb is minimal, even at a couple hours.
 
I just got back to this project today. I recently had a bad tooth infection and didn't think Percoset every 2 hours and sharp pointy objects was a good idea to mix. That's the most pain I've been in for a long long time.

This steel is driving me nuts! I straightened the steel as best I could and started trying to flatten it (13") on a 8" flat platen. Besides that being fairly difficult, when I did some grinding and checked it with a straight edge, it was back to bent again. So I straightened it again and put it in the oven for the stress relief. Don't know if that's a good idea, but it's cooking now. When I say I straightened it again, what I mean is "as best as I could" since it is now beginning to look kind of like a big, knife shaped egg noodle! lol

You know, if the vendor knew this was a problem, why didn't they say as much and recommend it for forging use? I now have a 24" x 48" piece of 1095 that I have nowhere to store and really can't use...at least not until I get this figured out.

Any other ideas anyone?
 
For thin stock, I just bend it straight by hand. You need a good flat surface to check for the warps. If you don't have a granite surface plate, go to a granite countertop place and ask if you can check the dumpster for a sink cutout. You will use this piece if granite a LOT in knife making. Now lay your stock on the granite with a light shining from behind it. You will see where light comes under the concave of a warp. Mark the opposite side on the Apex of any bends. Do this one at a time, starting with the most severe warp. Lay the stock flat and put one hand on your mark and leaving one end of your stock on the bench lift up the other end. Push the apex down, so it bends the other way the same amount. Check it on the plate .repeat as necessary . You'll get good at it after a while, we all do.
 
Thank you very much. The video is a huge help! I had already profiled my chef's blade, so it was really bending funny having a wide blade and narrow handle. Also, I really don't think I realized it wasn't flat until I had profiled it. I must have gotten confused over a previous reply in thinking that I should do the Stress Relief/Normalize after initial grinding. As I understand you, I should do that before even profiling the blade, correct?

Thanks again,
Walt
 
It's easier to do with a rectangular shape of consistent thickness but straightening a profiled blank vs a bar isn't that much different. You just need to take into account the varied width and where you apply pressure. I generally try to isolate the wide/thin portions first, then straighten the whole thing. IE get the blade portion straight, get the handle straight, then get the handle and blade straight together.
 
I have some of JT's 15n20 and it has a slight bow in it as it was a bandsaw blade. I do all the bevels post HT. What's worked for me is heat treating it then clamping it between 2 pieces of 1/2" flat bar after 8 seconds in the oil and going straight into the tempering oven clamped in the flat bar. I've done 2 so far and they've come out perfectly flat. I preheat the flat bar in the oven while it's getting up to temp so when I go into tempering I don't have to completely heat such a large mass of steel. To make it easy I set one of the flat bars on some 1" chucks of steel to raise it off my table set the blade on it, place the other bar on top and being raised off the table makes it easy to clamp so I don't that to fumble with the 400* steel.
 
kuraki said:
Fumbling with 400 degree steel is half the fun. You're cheating yourself out of a character building experience.
Click to expand...

I think I have enough character on my hands and fingers from over the years than to purposely inflict more upon them.. haha.. :DI'm accident prone enough.. I just did this the other day trying to get a small varmint at the house and had my thumb just a little too close to the breach when I closed it on a pellet gun.

IMG_3473.JPG
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top