On the bench these days... the yew handle ritual;-).

Those are two knives I have got in the making. Topmost is a spring steel dragon head utility knife, a rugged bastard of a user with less than 1 % stock removal.

Below is a puuko with a yew handle and a prototype blade for either Puronvarsi or Iisaakki Järvenpää, which the master, Rudolf Broch, himself forged from 1.4110 steel. The blade had Rockwell markings from tip to tang, and it has a defined hardness from 55 HRC in the first cm of the tang, 57 in the middle and 58 near the tank, which suits me fine to know! As for the handle... I am not quite sure if I´ll ever make one yew handle again. It´s as if the Gods would require at least two handles as a sacrifice*ggg*. I go through at least two handles, and even this one had a crack near the butt. So I filed the questionable part off and fitted a copper buttcap to keep the mess together. It will work fine, but looks ugly. I´ll take this as another user, but it´s a bit unnerving. But, as always, I´ll work on it, and I keep learning still.