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DanielC said:
And then of course is my infatuation for Jnats and stone polishing. A considerable amount of work, but it kind of goes in line with everything I do. I have a growing mass of stones because i feel like options are necessary, and so is longevity ( I've added a few since photo :D )
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nice stones
 
Nino-chan said:
nice stones
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Thanks :)

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milkbaby said:
Dat nice! :) No nickel sheet between the carbon core and the stainless? It kinda looked like it in the earlier pic.

Is your 1.2442 sourced from Achim Wirtz or somebody else over there?
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Yes the nickle is there. Heres a close up of one of the others I am working in to show.
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DanielC said:
I managed to make white cast iron in the 3.5-4% C ranges as well lolol.

These will be forge welded with other bits of.much lower carbon steel as an Infusion of carbon and to enrich crucible steel runs with carbon.

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Pretty wild stuff. I'm now in talks of writing a paper for an archaeological dig on some of my insights
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Daniel, is it possible to determine the quality of the mineral content from the micrographs? Is there any insight into the forging process that can be garnered from the resulting grain pattern of the wootz metal/process?
 
pentryumf said:
Daniel, is it possible to determine the quality of the mineral content from the micrographs? Is there any insight into the forging process that can be garnered from the resulting grain pattern of the wootz metal/process?
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These micrographs in that post were of steel created in an open charcoal furnace meant to make high carbon steel that the Japanese call Oroshigane (ball steel), and the Europeans called 'hearth steel's. I simply pushed the carbon a lot higher than is typical in those examples.

Unfortunately for optical microscopy, you cannot determine what kind of carbide is what without very specific etchants and a lot of time, and even then its reaaally something more suited for someone in a lab. I am not totally sure but I think some of these practices have been replaced with much more sophisticated equipment over time (Scanning Electron Microscope or SEM). An SEM can target any carbide and tell you what it is. I've thought about purchasing an older model SEM in the past.

Instead I sometimes get a compositional analysis with elemental testing.
 
Posting some progress photos of an ongoing project. This is some more of my wootz this using Vanadium and Chromium as carbide formers in a 1.6% sea of Carbon in iron. Apologies if you have already seen this on my IG. I realized it was not on here.

The puck was super nice
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No sign of graphite which is a good thing.
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Then after forging out 2kg of steel, I forged out a 400g section into a gyuto and heat treated. The hardness entered the 67-68rc range.

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The flavors of crucible steel I make vary, but this one helps facilitate a good pattern if treated carefully.

This pattern is a watered pattern. It is considered for all intents and purposes wootz, of the quality found in antiquity. If you were to zoom into the blade you would find spheroidized cementite making up the bands in the knife. Not to be confused with alloy banding.
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@DanielC,

Amazing work. Thanks for sharing it.

DanielC said:
If you were to zoom into the blade you would find spheroidized cementite making up the bands in the knife. Not to be confused with alloy banding.
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Interesting detail. Could you expand on the difference a bit? If you have the time... I would greatly appreciate an explanation!
 
DanielC said:
Posting some progress photos of an ongoing project. This is some more of my wootz this using Vanadium and Chromium as carbide formers in a 1.6% sea of Carbon in iron. Apologies if you have already seen this on my IG. I realized it was not on here.

The puck was super nice
View attachment 161916

No sign of graphite which is a good thing.
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View attachment 161918

Then after forging out 2kg of steel, I forged out a 400g section into a gyuto and heat treated. The hardness entered the 67-68rc range.

View attachment 161919

The flavors of crucible steel I make vary, but this one helps facilitate a good pattern if treated carefully.

This pattern is a watered pattern. It is considered for all intents and purposes wootz, of the quality found in antiquity. If you were to zoom into the blade you would find spheroidized cementite making up the bands in the knife. Not to be confused with alloy banding.
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This is awesome. If that gyuto needs a home.....
 
Luftmensch said:
@DanielC,

Amazing work. Thanks for sharing it.



Interesting detail. Could you expand on the difference a bit? If you have the time... I would greatly appreciate an explanation!
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For the most part, alloy banding is a segregation of high and low concentrations of chunky carbide from alloying elements. Typically alloy banding is avoided because metallurgically it is defective, but over time it has shown to not be noticeable to the end user. It's usually induced by over normalizing steels before austenizing (hardening). Some carbides dissolve into solution at higher temps or longer temps and others faster and shorter. FeC and MnC dissolve most readily while others like VC and WC more slowly or with higher temp. Cycling under required temps will only cause carbide to grow. In the end you get a mixture of large and small carbides made up varying type.

Wootz or watered crucible steel is made up of fine iron carbide in the form of cementite. The carbides do form higher and lower concentrations but in the form of cementite which is very fine and not oblong or chunky, and close to the hardness of the hardest steel, so not so brittle like Chromium or Vanadium Carbide. Each of the white lines are made up of tiny specks of spheroidized cementite. I show an example of zooming into past work on the first page I think of this.

Wootz or crucible steel is very hard to produce correctly as well. It's not necessarily an open subject for most because it has taken decades to reverse engineer how the ancients did it.

Also, there a bit of bulat that is rich in alloy and not necessarily carbon to induce patterning. These steel doesn't behave quite the same as general ultra high carbon crucible steels do and more akin to an alloy banded normal steel knife.

Geigs said:
This is awesome. If that gyuto needs a home.....
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Oh this is destined to a friend who has waited very patiently for a year or two. Certainly in the future. I'm gearing up to produce more down the road.
 
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talcum said:
This looks like the eyelets Verhoeven reported in antique Damascus blades.
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11837-998-0419-y.pdfVery cool. Do you see the same improved edge retention in your blades compared to modern carbon tool steel that he reports?
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Yes, my work is based off of this research. There is a small group of us that is constantly expanding on Verhoeven and Pendray's work. I am using a slightly.different chemistry and forging procedure for this puck and blade however.

It reacts very similarly to most high carbon modern steels. With the excess cementite present, it theoretically should. The carbon concentration in that melt was in the 1.6-1.7% C range. The knife itself is basically 25% iron carbide at this point. Those carbides are harder than steel. Usually in the 70-71rc range from my understanding. Theoretically it should.

VICTOR J CREAZZI said:
I just realized that we've met at the razor meet in north Texas.
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You may be confusing me with a wootz friend named Bruno or Tim. They makes wootz straight razors, not i.
 
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A recently made and sold "veggie chopper". Idk what you would call it. It's the shape I felt like making at the time 😆 maybe a mini santoku.

1.6% carbon, lamellar water pattern wootz in Bog Oak and titanium.

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hendrix said:
I was about to write “Now that’s an introduction” but then I realized it’s from 2019 but it’s still a valid statement. Great photos and thread!
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Thanks. I love documenting everything I do, so it is usually very easy to draw up pictures or data of various parts of a/the process :)
 
Knife critique.

I was recently given a review of this knife that wasn't what I expected.

I considered this a small herb/vegetable knife. Low point, flat profile with a faux shinogi that lead to a slight convexed geometry. It worked really well with vegetables in testing and it chopped cilantro and parsley with ease and no damage. It felt legit to me, but sometimes I get things wrong.

If anyone reads this, what are your thoughts? Avoid the pattern and just comment on the shape. Reflections can show geometry as well.

Note: I shortened the handle some after these pics.

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Looks like a fine veggie profile for a shorter knife, especially for folks who like push cutting.

For the rock-chop crowd it's probably a little short and flat.

It really has a lot to do with individual preferences.
 
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Looks like a good general small prep knife for push cutting smaller product. Just based on the shape I'd have no issues with it and would likely use it a lot for small tasks. But leafy herbs like cilantro/parsley/basil are the one case where I do like something with some curve and a sturdier edge for rock chopping. (My Prendergast does this really well - took me a while to get used to the profile for other applications though.)
 
timebard said:
Looks like a good general small prep knife for push cutting smaller product. Just based on the shape I'd have no issues with it and would likely use it a lot for small tasks. But leafy herbs like cilantro/parsley/basil are the one case where I do like something with some curve and a sturdier edge for rock chopping. (My Prendergast does this really well - took me a while to get used to the profile for other applications though.)
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I had difficulty describing this knife profile by a name and likely chose the wrong one. Thank you.
 
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