Knife Maker's Friday Five #18: Hamon Questions Answered

Hamons. Ten questions, ten answers. Everything you wanted to know about hamons and knife making. The hamon is a squiggly line seen on some knives and swords that demarcates a line between the hard and soft steel comprising the blade.
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[@SilentForrest-he4qj]

We love you man. You are so much more valuable than you get credit for. You are really a legend and I'd give everything to talk to you just for an hour. It would probably be just me showering you in compliments man, you deserve much more from KZbin users than you get

[@64t120r]

To anyone interested, I bought, watched, and used his video about hamon's. It's worth the bucks if you have any interest in making a blade with a hamon. I went from an ugly hamon to something I'm really proud of instantly.

[@ericyarber2734]

Thank you for emphasizing the importance of sword polishing! Every time you look at a gorgeous hamon or a luscious hada, you are looking equally at the work done by both the smith and polisher.

[@swedneck]

Hamons in swords, to expedite the killing of vampires and pillar men. ゴゴゴゴ

[@lordtalo2062]

Tim Stahel next you'll say "A JoJo reference on a knife making video?" toyu!

[@gooby8953]

No sendo required

[@joeda900]

@@lordtalo2062 A Jojo reference on a knife making video? NANI?!

[@AxiomIndustries]

@@joeda900 oh ho ho

[@gregorybatara8105]

A perfect way to make custom sword of Luck and Pluck indeed

[@thatguyukno5958]

love the Friday fives Walter keep em coming

[@gilbertodiazcastro8871]

As always, great video. Thanks for sharing. Now I'll share a little, Spanish Jamón is pronounced HAMON on English but it translates into HAM... I guess I can always use your hamon to slice my Jamón 😋

[@64t120r]

Walter, thanks. I watched your video about making a hamon. It's short and sweet, but full of good info. My hamon's are all different now, much better. Thanks again.

[@gregf8167]

thanks for all the inspirational vids on hamon and Japanese style blades.

[@MMOGood2Go]

Answered my question about tempering. great video, thanks.

[@markusbourne7699]

Thank you so much for this in depth explanation. All this came from just talking about Hamon.

[@kevinwilliam964]

Is it sharp as Caesar's hamon bubbles?

[@gregorybatara8105]

More like, *as blunt as the slab of rock that crushed Caesar*

[@Purpucula]

Caaaaaaaeeeeessaaaaaaar

[@LeatherandLight]

Great info! Saw your Forged in Fire. Sad that the time is so tight that great knife makers can be pushed and end up going home. Loved your design though!

[@simonhopkins3867]

always good info dood. Thanks Simon

[@brucesmith8733]

Thank you for this video, it was great.

[@BWAKAENA]

I like how you make your videos. You earned a new subscriber. 😊

[@adamhorner3950]

Awesome and informative video! I'm curious, do you do your normalization cycles before or after claying the blade?

[@akoponen]

Clay as heat sink? Or perhaps better to describe as insulation?

[@ToraKwai]

it's an insulator, stops the spine from cooling too fast so its softer. helps for a katana cos the edge isn't covered in clay so in the quench its cools fast and is therefore harder, the spine is covered in the clay and cools slower, making it softer, so it can flex a bit and take the impact from the blade if it's used in combat

[@leonardopsantos]

@@ToraKwai It's probably better described as a heat sink. It adds mass and heat capacity to the back of the blade, so cooling takes longer as there's more heat to be removed due to the larger mass.

[@gundanium3126]

Just thought i should say that iI have had success doing a hamon using 1074, furnace cement and canola oil. however as i use a lot of 5160 i dont get to put one on as much as i like to.

[@tinker5291]

Terrific video as usual! Just curious do you still use your "Cool Mist" unit and if you do how much?

[@Keith_the_knife_freak]

love it!!

[@christobaliancantu7112]

Thank you!

[@thetoneknob4493]

any insight on utsuri formation?

[@jackdawg4579]

Thank goodness the blue shirt is back! Your last video on throwing knives was just not the same without "the shirt" ! :) Thank you Walter very informative, I assume the wavy line of the hamon is a product of the process, how the steel reacts at any given point, not because every one doing a hamon industriously puts squiggles in the edge of the clay as they apply it along the blade?

[@polishavenger1]

Actually, yes....the "shape" of the hamon is in fact very dependent upon the application of the clay. But...sometimes the hamon has a mind of its own and it surprises you.

[@apexedgesharpening2005]

Do you need to temper after even with the differential edge? I want to make kitchen knives with a differential harden. Thanks in advance

[@CKKnifeandTool]

By far one of my top favorites videos Walter. I was wondering if I can get a Hamon on my D2 steel? I wrap my D2 in SS foil and that was where I am stuck. I suppose if I take my time I could place the Hamon on the D2 and then wrap it after it hardens slightly. Hmmmmm.... Am I on the right track or is the Hamon better used for lower steels like 1084, 1085, 1095 O1, etc..?

[@jimmygrey6848]

Chromium in steel pretty much makes Hamon's an impossibility. So D2 is no good. O1 is no good either, it can be done but not with good results. Really it's all about the alloying elements, the less of them there are the better and clearer the Hamon will look. W2 tool steel is your best bet, second to that is 1095, as you go down the list in the 10xx series the more definition you will lose. A Hamon on 1084 will be more of a line than a complex wavy pattern.

[@CKKnifeandTool]

Thanks!

[@Kamikaziidare]

Is the "Water" used in quenching Japanese blades "Water" as in H2O or is it a brine including salts and other ingredients?

[@ians1464]

What's the best way to Polish to bring them out

[@seerking]

Whats the difference between HM-19 vs HM-22? Ia one stronger or better than the other? Or is it just appearance appeal at that point?

[@STIZEN9]

Walter- you have mastered the lost art of, "the F.B.I. face." Your face looks like you are law enforcement or even a police officer, and I call this very rare thing, " the FBI face." Thankyou for your videos.

[@gregf8167]

I have success with 1095 (with clay) quenching in water for 2 seconds before going straight into oil

[@christobaliancantu7112]

Is 5160 spring steel good to use to make a hamon?

[@dusanpavlovic2201]

can make hamon on 6150 steel quenching it in oil

[@adilpathanpathan8943]

Is it important to cover the edge of katana too for heat treatment and hammon?

[@justicesmoore]

No, the reason you cover the spine is so that it doesn't harden, and stays soft and flexible. You don't want the edge covered because you want it to be hard so that it retains its edge.

[@johncharles7698]

how about 5160 steel.can it pop up the hamon?,thank b4

[@kevindiaz631]

hey man, can you make raindrop damascus?? pls

[@kingjpeg]

is it possible to make a Damascus knife with a hamon? great informative video as always, thank you for putting in so much effort to your channel

[@polishavenger1]

Yes, but a lot of folks find the added feature to be a distraction from the patterned layering in damascus. Also vice versa. Kinda like wearing stripes and polka dots?

[@kingjpeg]

Thank you, yea figured it could look a bit odd 😂

[@thejackofalltrades2692]

Mr sorrells. I have an old samurai sword that needs polished. It's not rusty at all but it does show its age, but needs polished none the less. Can I use wet dry sand paper in many grits to get it fully polished? I don't have the 2000 grand or more to have someone do it, nor do I want to let a 377 year old sword out of my sight.. thanks again!

[@naveediqbal1955]

Which material is used for Hamon paste, which blade material is best for hamon pattern, which oil is used for quenching? Question from Pakistan. Please help, I want to try it

[@angiramitra3292]

what kind of precautions should one take while attempting to water quench high carbon steel so that it doesnt crack.? Please help.... Thank you

[@aslob9321]

ANGIRA MITRA + You can try pre-heating the water slightly. The whole point of the video is that the process is more art than science. You have to try things and see what works for you. Also keep a journal with notes about each blade you make, it will come in handy later on.

[@randallkelley3599]

Saw you on Forged in Fire, your blade was super. Seems to me he struck it awfully hard, you would have won the sword contest no prob...

[@jonrandall638]

i guess I am kinda randomly asking but does anyone know a good site to stream new movies online ?

[@markuscason7697]

@Jon Randall Flixportal

[@jonrandall638]

@Markus Cason Thanks, I signed up and it seems like a nice service :D I really appreciate it !!

[@markuscason7697]

@Jon Randall No problem :D

[@rcr3158]

Would applying vinegar to enhance the homon on a nihonto sword damage the blade?

[@thepenultimateninja5797]

Roy Raw-k it won't damage it, but ferric chloride is much better. You can buy it from electronics suppliers as PCB etchant.

[@coalsauce4457]

can you make hamons without the clay coating or have you not been trained to do it?

[@justicesmoore]

You probably could with some really weird techniques, but personally I believe it would be easier to use clay. You also probably don't have any control over the hamon without using clay, if it is possible.

[@cottonfootage]

Quick question, will the pattern disappear if the blade get rusty or over polished?

[@kcparker2736]

No. The hamon will always be there. But if you sand it down afterwords, you will no longer see the hamon. But polishing is what brings it out. So if you're into knife making, and want to have a hamon, I would use mothers mag polish.

[@makatadaito1351]

Fun fact : differential hardening is existed in Southeast Asia almost 2000 years ago and still practicing this technique today

[@umityayla5051]

Very informative as always. A pair of new shirts would be wise investment though :)

[@gooby8953]

No sendo required?

[@Lukegear]

What kind of breathing technique is used to put hamon in a blade?

[@ModernBladesmith]

you typically hold your breath and hope it doesn't crack. In all seriousness though i have no idea what you mean by breathing technique.

[@Lukegear]

Oh my, I actually got a genuine reply, I was just joking and fooling around with a reference to a great and popular anime/manga series, where a "hamon" is a fictional power generated by breathing in an undisclosed way xD But I actually really appreciate your goodwill of trying to answer, that is rather helpful and very nice. An actual question though, I really wanted to get into knife making, but I really don't have the option to do it with power tools. How physically taxing would the process be? I'm betting I can do it, even tough my shoulders are somewhat weak...

[@brokeasdope]

Lukegear Walter Sorrells actually has a few older videos about making knives completely by hand. it's a lot more work but completely do-able. you're limited to a stock removal method by hand done with a file. you can go to any metal supply shop and buy bar stock in whatever thickness you want and get at it. You'll need a vise, several files, an oven and a lot of patience.

[@Lukegear]

Many thanks, I thought as much, guess I should just get the necessary info and stuff and get going. I really admire this craft and I feel like I'm missing out if I don't begin treading steps into it :)

[@brokeasdope]

Lukegear It's a lot of fun man, Walter definitely served as inspiration for me to make my first knife and his videos contain everything you need to know to get you there. My knives aren't nearly as good as his and I haven't made the investment into the expensive equipment but it's really cool when someone asks you where you got your knife and you get to reply with 'I made it'

[@Gterr1971]

you only gave basic answers. we wanted the secrets

[@johncastro7372]

You gotta kill and torture for secrets

[@Gterr1971]

@@johncastro7372agreed. I don't imagine sword makers in Japan were very sharing of their secrets.

[@abitnutz6747]

Can you put a hamon on a wootz steel blade?

[@justicesmoore]

Probably not. Not that you'd want to in the first place. With wootz steel, you have lots of little bits of martensite and pearlite intertwined with each other, which is what makes the steel so strong. To be able to make a Hamon, you'd have to undo what makes it wootz steel. Maybe if someone knew how to make wootz steel, they'd be able to make it with a hamon, but for what we know today, it seems impossible.

[@EdSki1970]

Why do I see videos on KZbin saying a hamon is made by using an etching solution?

[@Isaiah-gz4gp]

Hey Walter, do you think I could get a hamon with 01? If so, which oil? Recommendations.

[@anarkiddy2984]

Isaiah5210 I don't know of blades made out of 01 that have hamons. I do know, however, that W2 and 1095 get really nice hamons with Parks 50.

[@anatolstelzhammer6110]

01 has lots of manganese and therefore hardens quite easily. This makes it very hard/impossible to achieve a visible hamon line.

[@WalterSorrellsBlades]

It's possible in a functional sense. But if you want it to look any good, it's not at all ideal. I've done it, but it looks like crap! Just a big soft cloud running down the middle of the blade.

[@Isaiah-gz4gp]

Maybe it's time to try a new steal. Thank ya sir

[@deutschdominik]

Hi Walter i have a question ,is it possible to make a katana with a dobble hamon ?

[@TheMrplongeur]

Yes, just put clay on the middle of the balde, with the spine and the blade without clay

[@bmxriderforlife1234]

like a hamon on both sides of a blade or like a single edged blade with two hamon?

[@deutschdominik]

bmxriderforlife1234 a single edged Blade with two hamon lines

[@TheMrplongeur]

Dominik Deutsch look to neels van beerg, he mades a 4 hamons blade

[@bmxriderforlife1234]

you could have the spine have a hamon as well, and there is a way to have two hamon on the edge, but its also extremely difficult to do from what i know, even master smiths in japan have issues with it. ill see if i can find an example of the latter, but yeah not something that is easy to do, though it is possible. im sure if you look around on some of the blade smithing forums there will be someone who can point you in the right direction. i also dont believe youll be able to control the hamon's like you would in a more typical sense.

[@widneyburton1077]

It's a dang ol' haymen

[@tomptrson]

can I create a hamon on A2 tool steel?

[@jimmygrey6848]

Maybe, but probably not.

[@ericyarber2734]

Like Walter mentioned, A2 is an air hardening steel, so I don't think you would get the crystalline borderline in the steel you want.

[@DreadtheMadSmith]

What about 5160?

[@polishavenger1]

You won't get anywhere near the activity with 5160. Look at Bill Siegel's blades, he does 5160 differential hardening, I believe.

[@tofanedward9049]

5160 gives ,,bad" hammons

[@samfletcher3387]

Have you ever quenched in motor oil? is that possible??

[@coachro4st13]

any oil should work, some a bit better, some a bit worse, but it smells relly bad when burning. dont recommend it

[@anatolstelzhammer6110]

Woudn't recommend it either. Get a can of cheap vegetableoil. It works much better and the fumes are not toxic.

[@WarpedLegacy]

I quench with used motor oil all the time. It def stinks and you usually get a fire, but I have had great results with it. It makes a mess, and you have to pay extra attention because it almost always flares up. I talk about it a little in my monster machete part 2 video. Its not the cleanest, or the safest, or the best, but it works. Define Your Legacy!

[@anatolstelzhammer6110]

well if saving the 5 dollars for a can of canola oil is worth risking your health and getting worse results then go on:)

[@anatolstelzhammer6110]

but getting a free haircut when it flares right up in your face is for sure a bonus

[@kbzwalker8155]

If it don't work real good can u try again

[@lol9705]

Hi

[@EdSki1970]

What do you think about the fake knockoffs sold on eBay made in China with there etched or polished hamons?

[@TheMustafar3]

A comment on that metallugy part: What actually happens is as you heat the steel above i think it was 728°C the alpha-Ferrite starts to transform to Austenite. That means that the carbon in the metal is able to dissolve and slip in between the tight spaces of the cubic (from volume centered transformed to area centered) structure. If you wold cool the metal down inside the forge that carbon would be pressed out of those spaces again but if you cool rapidly it has just not enough time to do so and that is what hardens the steel and what you call martensite. At least that is how i undestood it from the Profs explanation.

[@fleastomper]

Walter: I am curious, on the same topic as the hamons, how do Japanese trained bladesmiths quench in water primarily without breaking the blades? I understand that Japanese blades are traditionally made using a tamahagane, essentially a stack of low/med/high carbon steel; but I have never understood how the blades can be quenched in water without cracks developing. Unfortunately my knowledge is limited to KZbin and TV shows, and I know on Forged in Fire it seems every time a blade is quenched in water the blades *almost* always develop cracks.

[@64t120r]

They break some. Then they cry.

[@brokeasdope]

fleastomper Tamahagane is basically rough made high carbon steel made from smelting iron sand. Check out some videos on how it's made, you can find a few guys do it with the traditional method, I think Walter even had an old one where he did it. There's a lot to tempering steel, Walter touches on some of the metallurgy here briefly but grain structures are the biggest thing to understand. the issue with tempering in water is that the water boils around the blade and can cause little parts of that steel to cool at rapidly different rates which causes the blade to crack. Your best bet is to use a trough long enough to fit your entire blade in at once and deep enough to hold enough water to disapate the heat of the blade, then you cross your fingers and hope you didn't fuck your hard work.

[@mt_baldwin]

Forgive my ignorance but are "hamons" and "differential heat treatment" the same thing? Or do they produce significant practical differences in blades besides the appearance?

[@jimmygrey6848]

All blades with Hamons are differentially hardened, but not all differentially hardened blades can have hamons.

[@yusufsudarminto4344]

What's hamon ????

[@ared18t]

hamon is also Spanish for Ham

[@dani-dynamite]

ared18t No, actually it's jamón, spoken like.. argh, I can only described it with my German tongue... Chamon or hramon. So no J.

[@NikoMoraKamu]

Jamon (ham) and Hamon sound very very very similar in spanish

[@solsinclair1909]

'Hamoan' isn't how its pronounced in Japanese 😅 its HA - MON as in ON/OFF. But amazing video.

[@commanderfox7328]

do you think you could make a damascus steel kukari

[@londiniumarmoury7037]

Don't want to nitpick, you were one of my earliest sources for learning how to forge myself. But i've been studying Japanese for awhile now and you don't pronounce it like that. When speaking japanese you have to pronounce every letter with the same speed. you don't want to pur more stress on a single tone. you say it like Ha-Mo barely even touching the N, it's almost silent. So there is no "Own" long sound at the end. Just say it fast like Ha-Mo Sharp Ha Sharp Mo, more like Hamoh but all said at the same speed. With a little n kind of at the end. Sorry just had to say it as you mentioned correct way to say it and then said it with an American accent lol Love you still, one of my best online teachers.

[@alduinbb]

COAAAAAAAAA

[@flederflick]

is it me or are these Friday fives getting longer every Friday. not complaining though

[@WalterSorrellsBlades]

Yeah, had a bunch of knives to get out on Friday, then went to the NRA convention in Atlanta on Saturday. Just got around to finishing it up today!

[@howardpayne4128]

lol, I think he meant the length of the video not when it was brought out, thanks I enjoyed it.

[@flederflick]

Howard Payne that was what I meant. the day of the upload does not matter. I'm always glad when Walter uploads his incredible videos.

[@huybv1998]

Overdrivvuuuu !!!

[@jordanhall9399]

Anyone ever try finding a female in the comments on these videos? It can't be done!

[@diobrandowithhismask8039]

SUNLIGHTO YELLOW OVERDRIVUUUUUUUU

[@johncastro7372]

"Not a cosmetic" "not entirely true"