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Post by lamebmx on Mar 6, 2012 11:15:04 GMT
You need an acid in there. and just a tiny drop of dish soap to break the surface tension of the water. The guy from fable blades did an etching how-to where he put the diluted acid on the blade, and got a bit of dish soap on a toothpick and drug it on top of the water to break the tension. Soap is normally a base, which when mixed with an acid give you water and a salt. Too much soap = no acid. Since the hamon is questionable, you might try and pick up some ferric chloride at you local electronics place. It is used to etch circuit boards. It should work faster and bring about quicker results, at least just testing an area. It might not be wise to use along the whole blade as working faster gives you less time treating the blade as a whole. Warm water and warm blade, heat speeds up the oxidation process. Only things I can think of.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 6, 2012 15:10:14 GMT
Yep, the acid is needed to etch the metal. It oxidizes or "eats" the steel at varying rates due to the differences in the hardened and less hardened steel on the blade edge which are created during the quenching process.
The acid is really just vinegar. Apple cider vinegar works really well. The liquid dish soap (just a couple of drops per cup of vinegar) breaks the surface tension so the vinegar applies in a sheeting fashion versus beading up and running off the blade in rivulets. This action also provides for a smoother more uniform etch coating versus splotchy etching. Microwave the vinegar until VERY warm, not boiling but VERY warm. Hot vinegar is more than twice as fast acting than cold. You might want to tape off the blade from the ridgeline around the mune otherwise the etching vinegar will darken that portion of the blade as well creating more clean up work after the hamon is brought out. I use a narrow one inch paint brush with soft bristles to paint the blade. I hold the blade by the tang with the point over the cup of hot vinegar and paint from top to bottom for 5-10 minutes. If the hamon is there, you'll see it in less than 5 minutes. Wipe dry the blade. Inspect the progress.Then reheat the vinegar and repeat as needed. At some point you'll see a stopping point where the blade is going dark-ish. Kind of gray/black. The blade is pretty much done. If this fails to bring out the hamon....it's not there. You can do this after your sharpening job you just finished. Remember to take the oil off the blade before you start this and re-oil frequently afterwards to ward off oxidation ( the rusting process) which will happen quicker with an etched blade. Let us know what happens.
Steve
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Post by Charl on Mar 7, 2012 5:00:16 GMT
Well i tried again, following that youtube link that zentesuken posted and here are the results...
Nothing to be seen except for some plotchiness where the blade was obviously not clean enough. so if those marks showed up, im pretty sure a hamon would have if its there.....
no matter though, its just my blade for backyard cutting anyway. I dont display it or anything. Was fun trying all of this out though and i got to play around alot with my video editing software!! :mrgreen:
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Post by zentesukenVII on Mar 7, 2012 5:10:38 GMT
definitely TH. You would see a hamon somewhere almost instantly! looks like you learned how important it is that you clean the blade before vinegar application! lol
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Post by Charl on Mar 7, 2012 5:55:30 GMT
Lol, yeah your right! Pity though, it seems GG has sold me a sword where the blade doesnt match the discription! I dont think theyll let me return it after 5 years though! Ill be keeping my eye out for the Chikara v3....
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Post by frankthebunny on Mar 7, 2012 6:37:11 GMT
is it my eyes or is it my monitor or maybe some weird reflection on the blade but I would almost swear I see a hamon, especially the boshi. it even seems like it is a suguha hamon I am getting old and I do wear glasses so I really could be wrong
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Post by lamebmx on Mar 7, 2012 10:21:50 GMT
I think I will second that, there does appear to be a nice thin and faint line w/boshi. if you have already cleaned it you may have removed the oxidation. Try playing with lighting angles. Dang it that link is on my work computer and it will give me a chance to triple check the video.
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Post by lamebmx on Mar 7, 2012 10:57:30 GMT
link to my photobucket with screenshots and "enhanced" version which has some black lines around the area where the hamon? is: s381.photobucket.com/albums/oo25 ... g%20hamon/ I would post them here, but its faint. This site has lots of good info about looking at swords. Even on nihonto, sometimes due to age, type of polish or just the hardening process use, hamons are sometimes hard to see: www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/information.htmlThe video was a good idea, might have completely missed it with a camera. Have fun making that puppy pop out if thats what you wish.
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Post by zentesukenVII on Mar 7, 2012 15:37:17 GMT
looks like just staining to me. If anything the steel could be reacting because the steel on the edge IS harder than the thicker spots on the blade. Now I guess vinegar can show ghost hamon too! lol
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Post by kasim18 on Mar 7, 2012 23:03:06 GMT
the wait should be over pretty soon, i think the new hamon design is the only thing delaying it now
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Post by Charl on Mar 7, 2012 23:54:00 GMT
awesome!
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Post by kasim18 on Mar 13, 2012 23:12:57 GMT
yeah, sorry to see that your order got screwed up, i checked and all g series blades have an impressive hamon. i really would advise contacting them if it still irks you, not sure what they can do at this point, but i have been impressed with customer service so far
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Post by Charl on Mar 14, 2012 0:42:26 GMT
I will buy from them again! I am not holding a grudge. Just a little bit dissapointed! But it happens sometimes!
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George
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Post by George on Mar 14, 2012 0:57:55 GMT
The new fireblades also have a Fake Hamon. I dont know how they do it but its like they 'mark' the steel before putting the red coating on. I know cause i received a second where parts of the hamon were plainly not there, the line just stopped then begun again. Seems like the forge is cutting some corners.
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Post by kasim18 on Mar 14, 2012 1:21:35 GMT
yeah, i'm not really sure what you could do about that. I mean, Paul said in his review the old one had the real thing, and who the hell am I to argue with him, but his pic made it look to regular, i wasn't entirely convinced. i plan to buy from them, but not until the V3 chikara, which is an attempt to prove that they will not allow the forge to cut corners on the level of the V2. fingers crossed
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George
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Post by George on Mar 14, 2012 5:42:51 GMT
They changed the design of the Fireblades. Ive had two in the past. One about 2 years ago. The hamon was in fact real like Pauls review. Then i got another 6 months ago (getting them for mates) It was most defiantly fake, as it was a factory blemished and obvious as hell even to the untrained eye. I wish i had got a pic
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Post by kasim18 on Mar 14, 2012 19:01:08 GMT
cool, yeah, it appeared to be a very regular gunome in his review, and i just couldn't be totally sure, if it's covered by a red coating it definitely needs to be more erratic
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