Russian contributions to the Ukrainian custom knife trade...

[JohnKSa]

A Ukrainian knife maker makes two beautiful tanto knives using steel from the cannon barrel of a Russian armored personnel carrier.

The two steel construction he employed and his technique results in what looks like a hamon line on the finished knives.

 

[hso]

I think it is a form of san mai instead of hamon since I didn't see a quench step that would have produced a temper line. OTOH, using a different steel for the insert in the barrel might produce something that would etch differently.

 

[JohnKSa]

Right, it's definitely not a hamon. I think I worded my post poorly. The construction is sort of a san mai, but the way he does his forging results in the appearance of a hamon line on the finished knives.

 

[hso]

I was trying to decide if using the small forging die was just due to lack of resources, but now I think it was intentional to get the crinkle pattern in the laminate.

 

[JohnKSa]

Yup. Normally he would use that die with the steel perpendicular to the press. He was doing the criss-cross with the small die to squish the steel around so the interface of the two steels would form a nice pattern. I suspect he meant it to look like a hamon. He seems to be very good at working out how the patterns will look in the finished product--that and the fact that the blades were a Japanese style make me think it was intentional.