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My point here is this: gun regulations do affect the amount of deaths by guns

Maybe. I think there's also a significant cultural aspect. One telling statistic: There are more knife murders per capita in Chicago than in Toronto. That can't be blamed on guns, and neither city has any knife restrictions.

Toronto is in Canada, which does have knife restrictions. See also some of the better knife forums where this question comes up a lot.

Bah. Okay, I should have said "no knife restrictions that matter". Lots of places regulate switchblades, gravity-assisted opening blades, long folding knives, etc. In fact Chicago's regulations are roughly the same as Toronto's in that respect. But your average kitchen knife is a perfectly-serviceable weapon, and in many ways superior to the banned knives.

My point here is this: gun regulations do affect the amount of deaths by guns

Maybe. I think there's also a significant cultural aspect. One telling statistic: There are more knife murders per capita in Chicago than in Toronto. That can't be blamed on guns, and neither city has any knife restrictions.

Toronto is in Canada, which does have knife restrictions. See also some of the better knife forums where this question comes up a lot.

For falling you want a sharp axe as you want to cut through the fibers. For splitting you want a dull axe as you're wedging the fibers apart and a sharp axe will get stuck much easier then a dull axe. By dull I mean the edge rounded, not square.
The last Arvika I bought. I was really pissed off that someone had given it a razor edge, much worse for splitting, which is what I purchased it for. If I wanted to use it for throwing, cutting down hardwoods or building a log home then it would have been up to me to put my preferred edge on it. Makes a difference what the angle of the V is as well.
Some pictures of an Arvika being sharpened, http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1026125-Arvika-grind

And try http://www.bladeforums.com/forums
It works only in IE.

I call bullshit, and suspect that you only tried the IE that was pre-installed on your Windows PC, and lack any other browsers.
That site works fine in all of the browsers installed on my Ubuntu Linux PC (Opera 10.0, Epiphany 2.26.1, Firefox 3.0.14, and Firefox 3.5.3).

I guess that depends on what you consider 'many'. I doubt Microsoft would consider it many, because no one needs to wait for this dual boot machine to come out to scrub their OEM installed OS and replace it with Linux, and there aren't 'many' doing that.

Also Win 7 is not yet released. When it is Linux will once again have serious catching up to do. Most every flaw in Vista you could point out in a Linux sales pitch has been fixed in 7. Other than FOSS evangelist nonsense which most of the world does not care about.

And try http://www.bladeforums.com/forums

It works only in IE.

I think that is some kind of perversion of brand loyalty.

Many people derive a large part of their identity from the brands of product they buy and view any negative commentary on those brands and directed at them personally. If a guy has Windows computers, a Windows handheld, a Windows DVR, and knows a hell of a lot about Windows, and you tell him that Windows sucks he may, at the very least, see that as an attack on his consumer acumen and lash out at you.

Then you have the people driving Dodge vehicles with graphics of Calvin pissing on a Ford logo. Or vice versa. And Nascar fans. Or sports fans in general. I enjoy handmade cutlery and every so often visit web forums dedicated to just that. The brand loyalty people are there even, as this thread will clearly show.

In a psychological sense Fanboyism is a lot deeper than the article suggests, and it is a consequence of a culture as materialistic as Western culture tends to be.

Wootz AFAIK isn't manufactured; it's the impurities in the steel that make wootz wootz. There are ways to manufacture something wootz-like, but it's not real wootz. My first forge job was actually a small wootz knife with a leather wrapped handle, I use it in the kitchen to cut my chicken. ;)

Funny thing: we didn't know it was actually wootz untill we finished the blade, and noticed the fine pattern after grinding it down and polishing it. We then submerged the blade in acid to better bring out the contrast. If you're looking for wootz, a good chance of finding it is old springs from cars, friends of mine often score it in the form of old Mercedez springs from the car cemetary. The ones you're looking for are the long flat ones that look kind of like a bow, not the more recent spiral springs. Don't know the proper english term, but I hope this description is sufficient.

As for people who work with wootz to make blades, you might wanna try Bladeforums. Lots of knowleadgable bladesmiths hang out there, in the knife maker's area.

Wootz AFAIK isn't manufactured; it's the impurities in the steel that make wootz wootz. There are ways to manufacture something wootz-like, but it's not real wootz. My first forge job was actually a small wootz knife with a leather wrapped handle, I use it in the kitchen to cut my chicken. ;)

Funny thing: we didn't know it was actually wootz untill we finished the blade, and noticed the fine pattern after grinding it down and polishing it. We then submerged the blade in acid to better bring out the contrast. If you're looking for wootz, a good chance of finding it is old springs from cars, friends of mine often score it in the form of old Mercedez springs from the car cemetary. The ones you're looking for are the long flat ones that look kind of like a bow, not the more recent spiral springs. Don't know the proper english term, but I hope this description is sufficient.

As for people who work with wootz to make blades, you might wanna try Bladeforums. Lots of knowleadgable bladesmiths hang out there, in the knife maker's area.

Yup, I helped a friend make small strips of that for use in knifemaking. It's relatively easy; all you need is a gas forge (he helped me make mine, there's not much to it actually), an anvil, borax, steel cable, a welding machine and some large forging pliers to hold the hot piece of metal while beating it with a hammer. Oh, and you need a decent hammer too; one with hardened faces; soft ones won't do.

The process is simple; you tie off one end of the cable with some wire, before the point where it starts to untangle. You then cut off the untangled part relatively close to the point where you tied it off. Then weld the end fixed, so it won't untangle again. Repeat the same process a bit down the cable; how far depends on how long a strip you want to create. You then fire up your gas forge, wait for it to heat up completely, and just put the rod in. Wait untill it glows the right shade of red, take it out of the fire, then either throw borax on it using a large salt-shaker type of thing, or just roll the rod into a large bowl of borax. This will form a layer of borax around the rod. Back into the forge, the borax will seep between the strands of the cable, eating away at the impurities contained within. Repeat this process a couple of times... actually, a lot of times... The borax will drip into your forge, and it will eventually eat through the hull, so you better use one with a decent ceramic coating to prevent or slow down this process. Anyway, after you've repeated this process enough times, it's time to start welding the cable into a proper strip.

Make sure you wear decent protection, because when you hit that cable with your hammer, borax might shoot out, and hot borax will leave wounds that will ooze puss for days when it hits your bare skin. Even if you don't care about a couple of scars and some temporary discomfort, at least be smart enough to wear eye protection. Great, let's get on with it. Take the rod out of the forge, it's best to work in pairs so one can hold it with the pliers while laying it on the anvil, while the other smashes away at it with the hammer. Start beating it at one end, and do a couple of centimeters at a time. At first your goal is to create a rod with a square cross section; once you have that, you repeat the process, this time flattening it into a strip. Every time the metal cools off (starts glowing dimmer), put it back in the forge, and when it's heated up enough again, repeat the process, but start where you left off, slowly working your way from one end of the rod to the other. You'll notice that the metal will warp under the blows of your hammer; this is perfectly normal. Just turn it around, and you can smash it straight again. First hammer it on four sides to a square cross section, when you've covered the whole rod, repeat but this time beating it only on two sides so you end up with a strip.

Eventually, you'll end up with a rudimentary strip of cable damascus a couple of millimeters thick. Flatten it with a belt sander or whatever you have at your disposal, cut it into a straight strip, and you have a nice piece of cable damascus for stock removal production of knives (meaning you file the shape of the knife out of the bare strip, leaving the edge about 1mm in thickness, heat treat it, then polish and sharpen it). Of course you don't have to go the stock removal route; if you're more inclined to actually forge your knife/sword out of the rod, then work towards the shape you want for your knife/sword instead of a straight strip, and finish it off by belt sanding it to its final shape, heat treating it, then polishing and sharpening it.

You can find lots of info on knife/sword forging online if you google around a bit, and there's tons of books written on the subject. I'm just lucky I have a couple of friends who inducted me into this obscure art, though I wish I had more time to actually finish the designs I started... ;)

For those interested in this kind of stuff, a good starting point might be the knife makers forums on bladeforums.

Yup, I helped a friend make small strips of that for use in knifemaking. It's relatively easy; all you need is a gas forge (he helped me make mine, there's not much to it actually), an anvil, borax, steel cable, a welding machine and some large forging pliers to hold the hot piece of metal while beating it with a hammer. Oh, and you need a decent hammer too; one with hardened faces; soft ones won't do.

The process is simple; you tie off one end of the cable with some wire, before the point where it starts to untangle. You then cut off the untangled part relatively close to the point where you tied it off. Then weld the end fixed, so it won't untangle again. Repeat the same process a bit down the cable; how far depends on how long a strip you want to create. You then fire up your gas forge, wait for it to heat up completely, and just put the rod in. Wait untill it glows the right shade of red, take it out of the fire, then either throw borax on it using a large salt-shaker type of thing, or just roll the rod into a large bowl of borax. This will form a layer of borax around the rod. Back into the forge, the borax will seep between the strands of the cable, eating away at the impurities contained within. Repeat this process a couple of times... actually, a lot of times... The borax will drip into your forge, and it will eventually eat through the hull, so you better use one with a decent ceramic coating to prevent or slow down this process. Anyway, after you've repeated this process enough times, it's time to start welding the cable into a proper strip.

Make sure you wear decent protection, because when you hit that cable with your hammer, borax might shoot out, and hot borax will leave wounds that will ooze puss for days when it hits your bare skin. Even if you don't care about a couple of scars and some temporary discomfort, at least be smart enough to wear eye protection. Great, let's get on with it. Take the rod out of the forge, it's best to work in pairs so one can hold it with the pliers while laying it on the anvil, while the other smashes away at it with the hammer. Start beating it at one end, and do a couple of centimeters at a time. At first your goal is to create a rod with a square cross section; once you have that, you repeat the process, this time flattening it into a strip. Every time the metal cools off (starts glowing dimmer), put it back in the forge, and when it's heated up enough again, repeat the process, but start where you left off, slowly working your way from one end of the rod to the other. You'll notice that the metal will warp under the blows of your hammer; this is perfectly normal. Just turn it around, and you can smash it straight again. First hammer it on four sides to a square cross section, when you've covered the whole rod, repeat but this time beating it only on two sides so you end up with a strip.

Eventually, you'll end up with a rudimentary strip of cable damascus a couple of millimeters thick. Flatten it with a belt sander or whatever you have at your disposal, cut it into a straight strip, and you have a nice piece of cable damascus for stock removal production of knives (meaning you file the shape of the knife out of the bare strip, leaving the edge about 1mm in thickness, heat treat it, then polish and sharpen it). Of course you don't have to go the stock removal route; if you're more inclined to actually forge your knife/sword out of the rod, then work towards the shape you want for your knife/sword instead of a straight strip, and finish it off by belt sanding it to its final shape, heat treating it, then polishing and sharpening it.

You can find lots of info on knife/sword forging online if you google around a bit, and there's tons of books written on the subject. I'm just lucky I have a couple of friends who inducted me into this obscure art, though I wish I had more time to actually finish the designs I started... ;)

For those interested in this kind of stuff, a good starting point might be the knife makers forums on bladeforums.

The knife in question is what is termed as an "Art Knife" (though most art knives don't venture quite so far into the rare/exotic materials category), sort of a functional work of art. How functional? Well, a priceless bit of jewelery, you can theoretically wear, but a priceless knife, you can theoretically use to prepare lunch. You might well never do either, but in theory, the knife is more practical :-)

There is quite a community of people (me included) who are fascinated by knives, and who carry one or more around as a matter of course -- perhaps not a $2100 meteorite art knife, mind you, but I do know people who carry (and use) $500 custom-made pocket knives on a daily basis. (And, by the way, the vast majority of these people are sane, rational, level-headed types, who consider their knives to be tools, not weapons.)

For the two percent or so of the studio audience who are thinking, "hmm, this meteorite knife isn't for me, but the topic of knives is interesting", I would heartily recommend these sites for further information:

• www.bladeforums.com
  This is the most popular "web-based BBS" site for discussion of all things sharp and shiny. Lively discussions with everyone from the merely curious to avid collectors, to amateur and professional knife makers, and the CEOs of some of the most highly regarded knife companies.
• www.chaicutlery.com
  This online knife store is a one-man operation, a self-professed "collector turned dealer to support his habit" (and advocate for the sane use of sharp shiny things), who provides tons of good background information on the use, care, and rationale behind knives, without a hard sales pitch. My favorite place to point friends who become curious about knives.