How come they always do that AFTER I buy something, huh??? Anyway, when I first started teaching myself to make knives, I bought one of the Norwegian laminated blades from Atlanta Cutlery. It was one of my first attempts, and it came kinda clumsy as far as the guard/handle went, but the blade worked fine. Still does. Took it out hunting with me, and it did a good job on squirrels and rabbits. It now sits on my workbench and gets used as my general utility knife, plus whenever I get a little discourged when some knife project isn't going just right, it serves as an example to me as to how far I"ve come since I first built that knife by not quiting. Anyway, the steel isn't all that bad; it holds a pretty good edge and keeps it for a satisfactory amount of time. Gets used to cut all sorts of things, so gets a pretty good workout. The two outer, carbon layers do rust easily, but that is preventable of course. One of the great knifemakers of all time, Morseth, used only Scandinavian laminated steel and his knives were famous for their ability to cut. As far as I know(and I may be incorrect about this) he bought the steel already hardened/tempered and ground/shaped them cool(as in temperature). He was another one of the "a thin blade cuts much better than a thick blade" school. Have fun....maybe you should buy one knife and two axes on what you save. Or one of each axe and forget the knife. OR.........