Making a knife

Step 7: Test etch

If you remember in the HT step, I edge quenched it. I did that because 1084 is a shallow hardening steel, so I was hoping to get a quench line by doing that. To check and see what I got, I sanded it to 220 grit and dipped it in ferric chloride for a minute. After rubbing off the oxides with a paste polish, I could see a faint hamon. If you do not want a hamon to show, or you did not edge quench, you can skip this step and step 9.