Doug Lester

May God comfort his family. It's a shame to hear. A friend of mine in the Navy relayed an experience he had when he an his dad were looking for a car part in a junk yard (that shows you how long ago it was). Another man was trying to cut open an old acetylene tank with an acetylene torch when they hear a loud explosion. Dave didn't say that was left of the man because his dad wouldn't let him go look. Doug

Stunning doesn't even come close to describing it. Doug

The last time I found any wrought iron it was from cage bars from from a zoo that had been torn down and a man bought up as much as he could and resold it on a knife site. I'm sure that is long since gone as it was around 10 years ago. Doug

Big chefs need knives too. Great job, can't wait to see it finished. Doug

Absolutely top notch. How is the Walrus ivory to work with? Doug

Looks very nice. Is that a hollow grind on the primary bevel? How was the 8670 to work with. Doug

Very nice and a nice homage to the rifle. Doug

Joshua, be careful what you say about old people. One of these days you just might get to be one. Doug

I'm loving the medium count layer with a twist. It would make a nice steak knife as it is. Doug

Should have thought of this before. Go down to the Metallurgy and other Enigmas board below. You can find discussions on heat treating various alloys. 52100 is discussed, and yes, multiple normalizations are mentioned, like six or eight. Nothing like up to 100. Doug

I would not recommend using brine or water for quenching even for W series steels unless a fast oil will not quench it. Personally, I have never heard of anyone normalizing 52100 more than about three times but I have limited experience using it to make knives. It is a rather quirky alloy that resists breaking down it's carbides and lacks Vanadium to help pin the grain size. And, yes, steels can be over normalized. One Mastersmith who used to post on this board said he once got carried away with normalizing a blade made of 1095 and couldn't get it to hold an edge. He sent it ou

What is the inlay in the handle? Whatever it is it looks neat. Yes I see what you mean by blade not being straight. Just call it a right handed hewing ax and say that's how you designed it. Doug

You could use a flat piece of marble, possibly a part of a marble threshold from a flooring store, with a piece of course sandpaper adhered to it with a tacky spray as used to adhere discs of of sandpaper to a hand sander. Doug

Try Moscow Hide and Fur, they're located in Idaho. Scroll down to the bottom of their page and you should see a listing for bones and sculls and you will find listings for several different species, such as leg bones for elk and whitetail deer. These are clean but you will have to cut them into scales yourself and you will want to do that outside if you are using power tools because the process absolutely reeks. Doug

If you want to copy the knife and the cast bolster and keyhole remember to use an unleaded pewter or maybe a bearing metal. You can make up the mold with paper and tape and an iron ladle to melt and pour the metal. Have some files that you are willing to dedicate to shaping the metal as pewter or bearing metal tend to really clog the teeth. Doug