Hand forged vs. power hammer - real difference in blade grain?

Made a dozen chef knives by hand last year. All forged, all 1084 steel. Then I used a buddy's power hammer for my latest batch. Same steel, same heat treat. The grain on the power hammer blades looks way tighter under the microscope. Smoother finish too. Took about 4 months to see the pattern. Anyone else notice this kind of change when switching methods?

3 comments

3 Comments

jamief678d ago

Oh boy, you've hit on something I've been chewing on for years. I'll be the first to admit I'm not a metallurgist, I'm just a guy who likes hitting hot steel. But I've done my own little tests and honestly, I see the same thing you're describing. The grain does look a little different under a scope with power hammer work, at least to my tired old eyes. Now, to the_parker's point, I can't rule out heat treat differences completely. My quench timing is probably a mess half the time anyway. But I wonder if the repeated, faster blows from a power hammer just push the steel differently, maybe break up the grain more. Or maybe I'm just seeing things because I spent too many years under a sun lamp. Ha.

the_parker10d ago

Honestly, I've been doing this about six years now and I gotta push back a little. 1084 is pretty forgiving stuff and I think most of what you're seeing in the grain might be from the heat treat cycle being slightly different with the power hammer, not the hammer itself. I've compared hand forged and power hammered blades side by side and honestly couldn't tell a difference in the grain structure on my end.

blair_nguyen10d ago

and honestly i think your point about heat treat masking the hammer variables is probably way more true than most people want to admit. ive messed around with different hammer techniques on the same steel and the quench timing always seems to matter way more than how many times i hit it. people get so caught up in the tool debate they forget that steel just does what the temperature says.