What do you guys use to get a nice Hamon? I have some 1095 en route, gonna try my hand at a kitchen knife. And I'd like to try for a Hamon. From what I read and watched it's a fire brick mortar, but what suppliers do you use? I'm thinking Home Depot or something would have something?!
For the one unsuccessful attempt I've made, HD didn't have anything. Rona had some hi temp fireplace silicon, but I think the best bet would be somewhere that deals with fireplaces and the like.
a pottery place should stock the type of clay you need and fire bricks if you ever decide to build a forge.
You can use something like this : http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/i...nace-cement-710-ml-0642704p.html#.VmXjh3YvfIU but you better mix a part with a little bit of water (very little), it's too thick out of the pot to spread easily on a blade. You can dilute it more to create a «wash» that you put all over the blade, let it dry, and put a thicker layer after that for the hamon patern. Be careful, the wash is only a layer that you can see the blade trough it, it's not thick at all. The second layer does'nt have to be thick too, for a 1/8 blade at the back you can go between a 1/16 - 3/32 thick layer of clay approximately. A mixture of natural clay, sand and ashes ( 1-1-1) is also a good mix. The best results comes with water quench in my opinion, and dont forget to adjust your soak time at temp (clay absorb a lot of heat before the blade get at even temp).
I use the permixed homehardware furnace cement myself. You need to cut it with a little water to get it thin enough to spread well
I use this on my kiln to repair bricks. Its a little thick, but you can thin it with water. http://www.rona.ca/en/high-temperature-cement-946-ml-p66895006
