MrBaz

Price Drop.

Specs: 3/16" thick 1095 Differentially hardened in 190* oil Sandblasted finish The scandi grind is purely for looks. A secondary bevel actually puts the edge on it. Black Linen Micarta Handles w/ Red spacers 1/4" SS pins and NS lanyard hole Can't find my ruler, but hopefully the pictures will put it in scale. $90 OBO shipped CONUS. Here you can see a sort of flat spot on the primary grind where it got away from me a little bit while I was grinding. You can see the small 'ding' on the spine near the handle. Knife balances right about where my finger is at.

Are you going to burnish the shinogi-ji?

I think the second one would make a better chopper. It has a little more mass right where it counts. Grinding a dagger evenly? You'll get varying answers, but it isn't too hard. Just go slow and remove as little metal as possible. Don't get excited about it and move too fast. You'll end up making mistakes too fast as well.

I would definitely wait a while before trying this one. Get some good experience first on simpler shapes. That thing pictured has some serious compound curves that are going to be real fun whether you are forging or stock removal. Oh, and sharpening is going to be a real pain as well. Interesting design though.

It would probably be best to just go ahead and anneal the steel (easy to work with) and then harden after you are done. Just remember, sharpness is NOT a determining factor of steel hardness. You can make mild steel sharp, but that doesn't mean it can hold that edge for long. Run the file test on the edge. If the file 'skips' across the edge without cutting in, then the edge is hard. If it bites in, it isn't hardened enough. When you experience this you will know the difference. I would suggest doing the test on a piece of mild or annealed steel and then comparing it to a piece of steel you KNOW has been hardened 60RC or above. The first time I experience it, I was amazed at how big a difference there really was.

Gotcha.

I knew it was an air-hardening steel, but I'm just trying to get a feel for how everyone hardens their D2. I'm thinking of ordering a batch and wanted to see what the hardening process was like.

How did you harden the D2?

Awesome, thanks.

Any update on this?

Wow, good deal. I'm going to look into this. Thanks for posting this.

Amazing work. I'm just curious where you got your sword sharpening from? Did you simply just watch videos and read up on it (triald and error approach), or were you taught?

See, now you're making me do even more reading/research on natural stones. How am I ever going to get time to actually make some knives?

From where do you purchase your natural stones? I'm going to stick with synthetic for now until I can gain enough revenue to have reason to pay for the natural stones.