Alright folks, today was wild. Gonna spill the beans on this hamon katana project I just fought tooth and nail with. Buckle up.
Stumbling Into This Mess
Saw some jaw-dropping videos online of swords with that wavy, cloudy line running down the blade – the hamon. Pure fire. Figured, "How hard could it be?" Famous last words.
Diving Headfirst
First thing, grabbed the cheapest steel bar I could find at the local hardware dump. Looked straight enough. Big mistake number one. Should've known better.
Dragged out my trusty angle grinder. Marked a rough blade shape with a chunky permanent marker. Started grinding. Sparks flying everywhere, noise like a demon banshee. Felt cool for about five minutes. Then:
- Grinder slipped – scratched the steel real bad.
- Realized my blade shape looked less "deadly katana" and more "floppy butter knife."
- Sweat dripping into my eyes like crazy. Safety glasses fogged up.
The steel looked murdered. Needed a new plan.
The Heat is On (Literally)
Heard the hamon comes from uneven heating and cooling. Got my propane torch roaring. Glued some cheap furnace cement down the edge with a popsicle stick – looked like a toddler's art project. Fired up the torch.
Heated that sucker slowly. Glowing cherry red near the spine, tried to keep the edge covered cooler. Took forever. Arm felt like spaghetti. Judged the color… looked kinda right? Panic-plunged it into a bucket of warm water.
- HISS! POP! Sounded angry. Steam cloud filled the garage.
- Pulled it out… blade bent like a banana. Crap.
- Straightened it roughly with a hammer and a prayer. Heard a scary ping. Oh boy.
Sandpaper Hell
Okay, time to see if any hamon magic happened. Started sanding. Used progressively finer sandpaper, elbow grease on maximum. Wrist aching bad. Went from 80 grit all the way to like 1500. Polishing paste after that.
Held it up to the light… wiped the sweat and grime… squinted hard.
There it was! Not a perfect masterstroke, more like a drunken caterpillar crawling along the edge, but definitely wavy. A hamon! Crude, messy, but mine.
Lessons Learned (The Hard Way)
- Cheap steel fights back. Hard.
- Propane torches hate hands. Burn ointment is good.
- Sanding is pure agony. Takes way longer than you think.
- That "perfect plunge" feeling? Mostly luck the first few times.
- The hamon might be faint or jagged… but seeing ANY line appear after that slog? Pure gold.
Still buzzing. It ain't pretty, it ain't sharp, and my garage smells like burnt metal and regret. But I brute-forced a hamon onto a hunk of steel. Might try it again someday… after my arms recover.
