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These are what I use to drill any precision holes in my handles. I always called them a Brad point bit. I’ve never considered sharpening these types of bits, let alone making one from a regular bit. Great job!!

I have them ground to 600 grit, so it’s time for the swedges. First, I mark my layout lines. Once marked, I freehand grind these with a slow 120 grit belt. With a 220 belt, I clean up the plunge lines, then finish with 600 grit. Here I have them hand sanded to 600 grit. I do a quick...

Another step finished. The tangs are tapered. And everything is ground to 220. I’ll go to 600 on the grinder then start hand sanding.

Next, I’m going to use a trick from Dennis by making a template to layout the clay for the hamon. And the clay is applied. This will be my first time using this clay. We’ll see how it works. It is pretty watery, so it’s hard to get the clay applied very thick. Here they are after heat...

I’ll be making 2 of these to make sure at least 1 comes out ok. Here they are cut out and profiled. I recently picked up this digital height gauge with a carbide point and use it to mark a center line for grinding the bevels. Here the bevels are ground and the handle holes drilled.

Well, I’m getting a late start, but I’ll try to make this one worth the wait. I’ve been thinking of making a shorter, fat Bowie, so I sat down and got a design drawn up. It’ll be a W2 blade with a hamon, tapered tang and heirloom fit scales. I haven’t decided what the scales will be, but...

Have you ground any after heat treat? How deep did you file? Sometimes you can get decarb pretty bad. It may take some grinding to get to the hard steel.

Here's a dagger I recently finished. 7 1/2" blade, 12 3/4" overall. The blade and guard are out of a canister of scraps/end cuts of damascus and 1084 powder. The handle is a piece of Ironwood burl, museum fit to the guard.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Kiranskoa, xoticblanks, nyshedantlers, hi.koa, yellowfinkoa and rockinblocks. All on instagram.

Looks like they have started a facebook page until the forum is back up.

Not sure if this is who you are thinking of, but I took a screenshot of this last December off of Facebook.

I always encourage new or less experienced makers to join in on these KITHs. I never understood the KITHS that you had to have so much experience before you were allowed to join in. If you’re worried about receiving a lesser quality of knife than you make, you’re in the KITH for the wrong...

I’m in. I can fit another in with the next batch.

Going off Larrin Thomas' articles on cryo for stainless steel, I believe he said even a wait time of 15 minutes could make a difference. You want to have a continuous cooling of the blade from quench to cryo. From my understanding, the longer retained austenite is at a steady temperature...

Another reason is retained austenite. Tempering, or in the case of stainless steels, cryo treatment, can convert retained austenite to untempered martensite. This brings the reason for 2 cycles of tempering, to temper the untempered martensite converted in the first tempering cycle. The longer...

It depends. Burls are round in shape usually. The eyes go to the center, so as you cut slices, the edges of the slice will get more ray cuts verses eyes. Here’s a couple pictures that show what I’m talking about. The 2nd picture shows how I cut them. I try to get more face cuts that show the...

K&G will do smaller amounts. I try to send at least 7 pounds of each, clear, dyed or double dyed, as this should put you over the 10 pounds of finished weight to get the cheapest pricing. I have sent pieces 12” or 13” long without a problem. As far as double dyed, green/yellow or green/brown...

Thank you everyone! Here is the pro photo I got back today.

Another masterpiece, John. I always have to look at the pictures you post several times and notice more details each time.