dvinesco

Great advice from all of you! Thanks. I'm thinking finding other metal sources would be the way to go. Grinding that hard steal is a chore anyway. I will try the oven thing (before my wife gets home) and let you know what that does.

I'm new to this forum and a novice at knife making (as you can see). I started playing around with using planer blades and turning them into knives. Here are some I have done. My intention is to create junk yard style knives. Old school if you will, that look like a farmer might have made them 100 years ago. I have used a Bowie style blade shape and use copper for the hilt and handle pins brass if I can find it. The blades are 7 inches and I make the sheaths also by hand, hand sown and sometimes decorated. I use an angle grinder to shape the blades. I like to use Elk for handles. I have some questions, however. I know that the blades are very brittle because they are so hard. I am unemployed and don't have access to a torch. All I have is a MAPP gas torch. If I heat the spine of the blade to orange hot, will that make it less brittle? I hate to sell any of these knowing they are so brittle. Also, any suggestions as what would be a fair price to sell them for at a street fair or something like that? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Getting hard to pay the bills if you know what I mean.

Just joined hope to learn some stuff, know nothing so it should be easy to learn something!