Japanese knife steel lamination technique

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karlos21d

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Jan 10, 2017
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Hi everyone

I am trying to find some informations about japanese lamination technique. I was always wondering how are they able to make that irregular pattern. I understand laminateing two straight plates of steel makeing straight line but how is the "wave" pattern made ?
 
If you forge a sanmai billet by hand, some irregularities (waves) will naturally form. If you wanted to disrupt it more, you could grind some groves down into the core steel (kind of like laddering damascus, but not all the way to the spine).

I'm assuming you know the difference between a laminated blade and a differentially hardened one. Both can have "waves".
 
Yes I know the diference I of course ment the lamination line of kitchen knives between jigane and hagane.

I imagined it so that the plate of jigane is deformet or grind out some spots and then the jigane is hamered to it. But it is hard for me to belive that this thin plate of hard steel would stay straight when you make it even thiner in some spot.
 
The commercial knives with the exaggerated wave lines are hot pressed in dies to pattern the sides. Then they are ground flat to make the wave. The dies are very precise and don't move the edge enough to cause a problem in grinding.

To do it in a home shop, the simplest method is reduction by grinding waves and then careful forging to flat. This allows you to adjust the edge to keep it straight.
 
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