I am not a knife maker but I do like hand made knives. My question is "What is Hamon?" I see the word when the knife maker is describing his product but to this dummy it doesn't mean anything. How about someone making me smarter? Thanks

hamon is a line/pattern in the metal caused by differences in hardening...never done it myself, and it shows up better in certain metals...someone can probably give ya a LOT more info on it, but that's basically it. it's just an aesthetic thing as far as I know

Beyond simply being aesthetic it also is designed for the top of the blade to flex since it's softer and allowing the cutting edge to remain hard. Japanese sword makers incorporated it in swords in the mid 1600's. I do them occasionally when requested by a customer, normally on larger chopper type blades.

Here's a mediocre one of mine. The hamon is the line on the blade, that's the transition between the "hard" and "soft" parts of the blade. Below the line toward the edge is martensite, the hard stuff we like. Above the line is pearlite, the softer stuff.

Mostly aesthetic in my opinion.

Great. Now I can make fantastic knives like you guys do. LOL Thanks Daniel

Pearlite? I thought that was a beer for sissys

Here's one I did a few months ago.

Redneck sissys...