i wasn't trying to cut corners. i just have access to very specific tools and havn't gotten the money togeather to buy the tools to do things the way that i think they should be done. i will post pics as soon as i can. i just have to find time to get to a friends house to use his camera. Using the plasma cutter worked well, and the slight discoloration was taken away when i used the rat tail file, (the only small enough file that we have in the shop) to get it to the correct size for the tang. what the people on here post is of immense value to me, and i have learned a lot here over they years before i joined. just because i do something differently doesn't mean that i have disregarded their advice, i just means that either i didn't have the rite tools and equipment to follow their advice to the letter, or that i was trying something new, which is how everything anyone on here knows was figured out in the first place, someone, somewhere, at some point in history, trying something new. if it worked they kept it, if it didn't they chocked it up as a learning experience and moved on.