had a sampling of his carved knife handles. Showing meticulous detail were the unreal life like carvings of an eagle and a bear head.

The morning closed with a very informative talk by Roy Wirtanan that covered everything from building grinders to installing reversing switches on electric motors.

After a brief break for lunch, Al Bakke did a talk and demo on stone cutting and polishing techniques with a few hints on acid etching  thrown in for good measure.  As soon as Al had finished talking and answering questions, a grinder roared to life in the back of the shop.

The shark was doing his thing!  Greg Lightfoot was starting his demo on chisel grinding and handle finishing.  He was making one of his popular C4 Tantos out of BG-42 with Mycarta scales.  After Greg was finished grinding the blade, Ed Storch and myself were to heat treat the blade in molten salts with a molten salt marquench.  Greg would then finish assembling the knife on Sunday morning and the completed knife was to be auctioned off at noon Sunday as a fund raiser to keep the Symposium going for another year.

While we impatiently awaited the finishing touches on the hog roast, a little impromptu rope cutting competition started.  Some of the guys just walked up and sliced that 1 1/4 inch rope like it was a piece of string.  My little 7.5 inch blade forged from 52100 did cut the rope, but it took a few attempts and some coaching from Rick Dunkerley to develop the right technique.

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