[Isaac H.]

Today I am working on finishing up a small quillon dagger that has been coming together for a long time now.My stupid PC is refusing to upload any pictures from my camera,so unfortunately,no photos for you all.I do have a few things I need some opinions about before I go much further into the finishing process.First of all,I have seen more than a few sword grips,both wood and leather wrapped (notably custom Christian Fletcher pieces) dyed or stained GREEN.I think this little dagger will look quite spiffiy with a green stain on it's plain oak grip.Yet....where does one GET green stain? Not too many people are adventurous enough to stain their furniture and floors green! Is green woodstain something you need to special order?

Another issue revolves around the tempering...Granted,I should have double checked that I had a good temper BEFORE I peened everything...but I didn't. It looks to me like the very tip of the blade got too hot during the tempering process,and is now quite soft.Is there anything I can do about this? Is there a way of re-tempering the very tip of the blade without burning the grip,creating a weak spot or disassembling the whole darn thing? I was thinking I could maybe use a clamp on the blade as a heat sink,but I just don't know ...Thoughts,people?

[Eric G.]

Try Tandy leather factory. They have a lot of dyes and more.

http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/default.as..._city=Reno

[Joel Chesser]

It has been a few years since I looked but I seem to remember finding various colored wood dyes at Lowe's. That would be where I would start looking. I look forward to hearing of/seeing the results of your work.

[Tom Kinder]

on the tempering, I would like to point out that tempering only makes steel SOFTER and never harder. in order to harden the tip you will have to bring it to critical temp (non-magnetic or a red-orange depending on steel type) and hold it there until the steel reaches solution (10 to 15 minutes in most cases) then quench it. there is no way you could sink enough heat away from the blade with a clamp or anything else I can think of to allow hardening the tip without destroying the temper on the rest of the blade.

if it is just the very tip that is too soft you might consider carefully (so you don't over heat and soften it more) grinding back the tip until you reach the harder steel if that would make your blade too short then you either have to just leave it the way it is or go back to normalization cycles and all the way through the whole heat treat process.

I would also like too point out that if the blade is sharpened you will have a much greater risk of cracking the blade in quench.

so realistically, at this point you are pretty much stuck with what you have unless you can grind it back or want to start over with the blade.

sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I will be rather surprised if there is a way to harden just the tip.

I have been surprised before and I am certainly a long, long way from being an authority on this so . . . grain of salt and all that.

good luck