Love this thread.
Some tips that I don't think has been mentioned yet:
- When you buy blanks, trace them on cardboard, that way you build a bank of design templates.
- Use mild steel flat bar to practise making a design, it's cheap and works a bit easier and obviously you save your special steel.
- Use machinist cutting fluid when drilling the small holes in your steel.
- Clamp your handle on a piece of wood on the edge of your bench(point facing towards you), using a g-clamp, when you do the final surface sanding. Use copious amounts of cutting fluid.
