I recently finished the second of two friction folder knives that I’ve been working on. They started as 1095 high-carbon steel blanks that I cut out with a jigsaw. I ground them on a belt sander with ceramic belts, then heat treated them. Here’s the batch right after hardening. After hardening, I tempered them in… Read More


Here’s a tool I’ve been meaning to make since I started woodworking. Now that I have it I’m kicking myself for not making it earlier. It would have made all of my other work more fun. What is it? The humble strop. Basically it is the final sharpening stone. This particularly fine example is a… Read More


In my previous post about my work on the carving knife I mentioned that I thought I had stumbled into a differential heat treat. But I wasn’t sure until I actually etched the blade. Well my ferric chloride arrived the other day. It comes with all kinds of fun tidbits on the bottle, like “caustic”… Read More