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Thanks, I'm going to leave that to the experts and stick to wood, plastic and maybe some cow bone....for a long time.

I've taken a real liking to mammoth teeth for handles. I also like some of the mammoth ivory available. Having never held either one I'm curious as to how they are 'worked'. Do they need to be stabilized? Are the teeth hard like human teeth or can they be shaped and drilled? How about...

Thanks Carey. I learned rabbit snares, making whistles from willow branches and shooting rats at the dump with a 45-70 from my grand dad. :) Not enough tradition is being passed on to younger folks anymore. Besides, if a kid grows up doing for himself he's a better man.

Thanks. I was thinking of Birchwood Casey 'Plum Brown'. I've used it a lot on gun barrels, but I'm wondering now if it would be the right choice for a knife and how well it would hold up. I haven't used many gun barrels for carving weenie sticks. :)

This is going to a friend of my Son's. He is heading for a second Afgan tour. 1095, 4" blade I'll build some digital camo 'micarta' for the handle and 'brown' the blade. I've been working it with 220, how much finer should I go before heat treating? The other is two of the grandkids...

Thanks, I've been using an electric oven and heating it to 1525, too much heat hu? I went back to basics, forge and magnet. I built a sort of brick wall oven in front of the forge so I could heat the steel and watch the color at the same time and get it out easily when I wanted. I watched it...

I'm still having trouble getting my steel hard. I can't seem to get the file to skip after hardening but I can still file on it pretty easy. Once or twice I found areas of a blade that didn't want to file but not the complete blade. I'm using warmed canola and soaking the metal in the oven...

I got the Rutland at Home Depot. I think most of those kinds of places will have it.

Kevin, you know exactly what I experienced and now I know why. Great information. What would be a better steel for blade forging by a beginner, something more forgiving and with a lower learning curve maybe?

Thank you sir. I do have a programmable oven I built and the temperatures are accurate as measured with two different meters and thermocouples. The O1 I'm using came from McMaster Carr and is marked as such. I think I'll put it way aside and work with the 1095 I got from Aldo until I have...

Doug, it isn't during heat treat but when I just let it cool in the forge (anneal?). Last night I put the blank in the vice and started bending and it snapped right in half, no bending. Before I tried bending it I noticed some cracks along what would have been the spine and the blade. I'm new...

I'm having a hard time softening up a piece of hand forged 01. After forging I can't seem to get the blank soft enough to drill a hole in. When I made the blank I left it in the forge overnight to cool down. After having problems with it being too hard I again heated it up then left overnight...

I experimented with building a stacked leather handle over the weekend. It came out pretty nice. I built one of the wood and all-thread clamps to squeeze it together on a mandrel. I coated the mandrel with candle wax and used waterproof 'Gorilla' glue. I had one of my grandsons helping, he...

Thank you for the hint on the name 'Wire Jack'. I did a quick search and came up with http://www.collectors-of-schrades-r.us/articles/The%20Mighty%20Wire%20Jack.pdf Very informative, thanks again.

I've had this knife of my grandfathers for many years. I don't carry it anymore even though it holds an edge better than anything I've ever had. I've never been able to find any information on it, does anyone know anything about this one? Thanks.

That is amazing, very nice.

Thanks, I never thought of building the handle on a separate mandrel. What is the CA he's talking about and what kind of glue other than epoxy?

That is a nice knife, did you also make the sheath?

I wanted to try a hidden tang knife and have gotten this far already. I was thinking of stacked leather for the handle, I've seen some of the threads on how to clamp it all together but was wondering how to treat the leather discs. Do they get glued together, soaked in something or what? I...

Dwane, that is balanced! Thanks gentlemen for the responses it helps a lot to know that balance is weight and visual.