Thread: Unusual result

hmmmm. Very unusual.

Blueing is a chemical reaction driven by oxidization, or rather release of free Gibbs energy through a redox reaction.
Oxidization of inhomogenous mixtures of steel usually lead to the part of the steel wich is easier oxidized appearing dark, and the part of the steel with a higher oxidization potential appearing light. That´s how etching a folded Blade is done.

Because there is no pattern evident, I don´t think the steel for the blade got folded,
or it got folded wildly and numerous times. It looks more like the steel itself has become inhomogenous (or was to begin with).
It could be there are some depleted zones. Depletion occours over time, when alloying elements dissolve through the material and agglomerate to certain areas.
This makes the steel inhomogenous and changes the reduction potential of these parts.

I wonder if it affects the performance of the steel. Have you sharpened it yet, and found something unusual?