Once the shape is completely cut out, I hit it with the angle grinder to rough in the bevel and then I run it across the belt sander with the course belt and see where I'm at. Usually I need to repeat the grinder to sander step three or four times so I don't destroy a blank of steel by going too far too fast.

Then I do the heat treating. I use the acetylene torch to heat the blade to a uniform cherry red along all edges. I use a magnet to check critical temperature. When it's at the optimum temp I quench it in a brine solution. After that I test the edge with a file to get an idea of the rockwell hardness. When the file skates just right I know it's at about 60 rockwell. Soft enough to TAKE and edge - hard enough to KEEP it.

Then I make a guard for it, solder it on and start to work on the handle. I use a wide range of exotic hardwoods for the handle scales, they are slab or hole saw cut as the tang dictates. Once the handle is rough cut I drill the rivet holes (if it's a slab) - or create and tap and die a pommel if it's a narrow tang and expoxy it all together.