Hamon- I found a few

**mainaman** · 08-31-2012, 06:39 PM

Recently I got Iwasaki Western Tamahagane, which is deferentially heat treated razor. Knowing that I decided I'll etch it with acid to make the Hamon stand up from the rest of the blade.

After a few soaks in hot vinegar and cleaning in between, and natural stone polish afterwards I got a pretty interesting hamon to show up.

Then the big surprise...
I was working on a FON Golden Star, from my "for restoration" stash, hand sanding to prep it for high mirror finish. I started with Aoto powder then 1k Aluinum Oxide powder, and saw that the steel of the blade has two distinct finishes meeting ~1/2 way -a sure sigh for a differential heat treatment.
So I put the blade trough the hot vinegar etch process and got a nice wide hamon. Whet I found really surprising is that a factory made razor has this kind of treatment, may be that was the way to achieve really high hardness of the edge. Needless to say this one stays in the collection, and I will have to check every single Japanese straight for hamon from now on

Anyone that has blades with hamons post them so we can all enjoy them.

**Tylerbrycen** · 08-31-2012, 06:48 PM

where did u get such a beauty

**Birnando** · 08-31-2012, 07:12 PM

Wow, that is very cool!
I might just try that on one of my Fon's.
In fact, I feel very tempted to try on all my Japanese western grinded razors

Thanks for posting Stefan!

**mainaman** · 08-31-2012, 07:50 PM

Originally Posted by Birnando

Wow, that is very cool!
I might just try that on one of my Fon's.
In fact, I feel very tempted to try on all my Japanese western grinded razors

Thanks for posting Stefan!

This is my plan for mine, I wonder how many will have it. I tried another blade which turned out did not have a hamon.

**SirStropalot** · 08-31-2012, 08:08 PM

Nice, Stefan!! Kind of like a treasure hunt. I've always admired the hamon blades. One day.

Regards,

Howard

**Mike Blue** · 08-31-2012, 08:38 PM

Originally Posted by mainaman

This is my plan for mine, I wonder how many will have it. I tried another blade which turned out did not have a hamon.

The hamon is the demarcation of the martensite into other crystalline structures at the transition zone. The blade without hamon is through hardened so the entire blade is martensite, or not, if it wasn't hardened, and you'd know that pretty quick, or it's of a kind of steel that has enough alloying elements to prevent a hamon from being visible. Chromium is one of those elements.

**ScoutHikerDad** · 08-31-2012, 08:47 PM

I had a sandwich with hamon it today, first I've heard of it on a razor. Thanks for the interesting info.

**Catrentshaving** · 09-01-2012, 03:14 AM

That is pretty cool. Always neat how sometimes you can just come across things by fluke.

**Magpie** · 09-01-2012, 03:41 AM

Mike, or Stefan, Do you know if the blade edge is hardened, or if the blade SPINE is annealed? Curious if there are 2 different ways of achieving this goal, or if I am just being too imaginative with how it was accomplished.

**mainaman** · 09-01-2012, 04:24 AM

Originally Posted by Magpie

Mike, or Stefan, Do you know if the blade edge is hardened, or if the blade SPINE is annealed? Curious if there are 2 different ways of achieving this goal, or if I am just being too imaginative with how it was accomplished.

I think the edge is hardened, the spine is covered in clay and when quenched will cool down slower than the edge. I believe this is essentially the same process as used to make katana.

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