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Yeah, it was a hard decision, but I decided it was best to save for several months and get one that I'll hopefully always be happy with rather than getting one that I'd want to replace. I'm very happy with it. :)

Indeed! Use hasn't marred it at all, but the straight up shiny new look is now gone. It's begun to look like the great tool it is. :)

It can be used for making scrolls or any other bends where the angle is more acute than 90°, but you can also use the empty space between it and the main anvil as a place to bend things straight or to make slight dips. Also it can be handy when you want to have a longer than 5" surface under...

Finally saved up enough for what I intend to be my lifetime anvil. Next chapter... :D

Well so far it's been holding its blade quite nicely. I'll admit though that I haven't put it through any Forged in Fire type nail cutting tests. :eek2:

These pics really don't do the wood in the handle any justice. Guess I'll have to work on my photography at some point. ;)

A friend pointed out that the picture above makes the handle look fairly large. I have fairly large hands, but it's actually not that big a handle. Here's a different view for perspective:

Finally finished! While I'll always see every little flaw and work hard to make less of them each time, I'm overall quite happy with this for a first effort. Oh...and it's sharp! Comments, advice, etc. always welcome!

Only reason I chose to do the handle this way, btw, was that my room mate had some pretty wood that was already milled flat and square for scales and it was too thin to do as a single piece handle. Hopefully it'll come out nice...

Is it called a frame handle if you chisel in a groove on each scale then glue them together and secure the tang within the handle with epoxy? Being new I'm not always up on the terminology yet.

Here I've glued and cut the handle scales. Time to chisel out the grooves for the tang, glue it all together, shape and finish. I suspect that when I finally sharpen it it'll break through that last tiny bit of damascus on the heel and tip and get to the inner core of 15N20 like it already...

Thanks folks. I really appreciate the support and advice! Now if I can just grind it without grinding through the damascus in the spine area...

It survived heat treat! There are definately some flaws I've had to deal with and it's far from a perfect piece, but for a first try I'm really happy with it so far. Now a bunch more grinding and polishing (can't even see the real 15N20 blade yet), then a handle to make. Yeah...this is fun...

No it's heat cracks developing along the top and (last time) the sides. This lets the heat in to the kaowool level which then seems to retract and eventually large portions of the refractory cement fall off. One can only hope. :D Of course even if it cracks in the quench I'll have learned a...

I'll certainly give it a try and read more about it @milkbaby. Thanks! :D I've seen mention of similar heat cycles here or there, but had also read that you couldn't get back to really fine grain without a salt pot or similar arrangement. Perhaps the cycling gets it to a state that's...

From the studies I've read (haven't done any myself yet) you don't actually gain much grain improvement if you can't heat very quickly with a setup like salt pots. If someone knows this is wrong, or has some experience to share, please fill me in. I'm always wanting to learn! If you make...

That little piece is about a quarter inch thick, so there's still a fair amount of steel there, though certainly not enough for a gyuto. That said, the plan has always been to start out with either a paring knife or a petty. Currently I don't have a nice paring knife, so that makes that route...

Thanks. :)

Pattern complete! I'll need to do a bit more work to get that weld in the center better set. Plenty of room for improvement, but for a first time run with no power hammer or hydraulic press I'm very happy with how it's turned out. Time to make a knife!

What is red cooked sauce?