You're right Mike but I'm not going to force the issue at this point. I will say that they are NOT taking responsibility. They are just taking the path of least resistance. Their last email indicated that since they could not put the metal back which I removed, the blade was unrepairable.

I'm willing to let bygones by bygones and move on to the next endeavor.

Knive kits have always caught my eye but I've always been hesitant. My experience with such kits is that they're made for a boyscout type audience and the quality isn't usually there. The kits at Dixie look nice but not exactly what I'm looking for style wise...not this time anyhow.

Ragnar also has several kits and the prices are pretty good.

Well, I guess that will be the last time you order from them...

I wonder what the outcome would have been if you didn't attempt to sharpen it...

I like to think it would be the same...but who knows.

To me that's like losing any warranty on a tire that went flat 3 blocks from the tire shop because you drove the car back on the spare. A carbon steel knife is going to need to be field sharpened now and then...it happens (though it should never need to happen every time...or the first time).

I've spent a good part of the afternoon looking at the Skookum knife...I think I'm a bit too impulsive to wait that long though it is very nice.

I think you should give Rod an email....order up a Skookum and then buy an IJ for now. By the time the Skookum is ready you will be wanting another knife anyway

I think you're right about that.

Although given how much time I've spent at the Ragweed Forge website today, it may take me that long to decide on something...so many options!

Hi Hacksaw,

The Helle laminated blades you can buy can easily make the basis for your own custom knife.

Ray Mears in the ' Bushcraft 2x04 - Sweden' episode on VeohTV has a laminated Carbon Steel blade made for him and then goes on to make the handle himself.

So if you have got some rosewood, reindeer antler, curly birch, leather etc lying around this is certainly an excellent way to make your own custom knife. You could even make a guard made from nickel silver for that really special knife.

Sorry, Blast- forgot the basic instructions: "lead us not into temptation, deliver us from cannons..."

Dixie is great-gotta love a gun catalog with blunderbusses (blunderbussi?)and cannons, readymade or in kit form.. Takes me back to the 1950's ads in the American Rifleman from Interarmco- they offered a swedish 37mm antitank gun with the headline "Stop that charging woodchuck at 3000 yards!". No good stuff like that around anymore, sadly.

Q-Why do you have cannon fuse?

A-For my cannon...

Take a look at Jantz Supply . I have made a bunch of their kit knives, and have been more than happy with the quality of their stuff, and their service...

“Well, honey, you know how all those people never noticed the ‘No Soliciting’ sign on the porch… I thought, ‘Maybe if we put the sign somewhere more prominent, like this here cannon!’”