I had some HSS steel (DMo5) lying around, pre-hardened to 64HRC and gave it a go to make some carving knives from it. Now you often hear that this is a recommendeable project for beginners, but it is pretty hard to achieve without overheating or ruining tools. I used an angle grinder and constantly cooled the piece, fixing it on a 4x4 with Carpenter clamps.
Made a "pencil"-style handle for it and gave it a high convex bevel to zero. Pretty hard to do, but eventually succeeded, even though it is not exactly beautiful. The handle is from lilac from the old man's garden.
Tested it, and man, is that a slicer.
Then I started a sheath from hazel.
Fixed the halves with twine originally, which has been replaced with silver-plated wire in the meantime.
Thing is, that little slicer is pretty versatile. The blade being just 2 mm thick, it just sails through the wood. The blade is about 60mm long. I also tend to use it in the kitchen or for foraging.
Thing is, it does a lot of things really great. So much in fact, that I sometimes ask myself if we got it back to front with bushcraft knives. I mean, well, it can not do batoning. Or prying. But you can carve everything you need with it, including gluts. It is so light you don't notice it is there at all. I would not dismiss my Garberg or Casström knives for it or my Puukot, but it certainly is a reality check.
