Thanks for the positive comments!
Dana, Tippet, Karl & Lins post on grain refinement was timely for me for future knowledge! This knife fails from that standpoint. I "Clay" coated the spine on this knife for heat treat/quench to "protect it" and try to create a "Hamon" because of two small pits or air pockets on the blade that I thought went through the blade from one side to the other. I heated to just past non-magnetic and quenched in heated vegie oil. I don't think I tempered it at a high enough temp or long enough, if I recall I did 375 deg. two times for one hour. After the tempering cycles and final finish and etching while sharpening the knife the edge crumbled as I sharpened. If you look closely at the first pic you can see the edge is ragged!
I'm assuming that is where I made my mistake!
The good news is I learned a bunch from my failure. This was to be a knife for one of my nephew's as a birthday gift. the next will be better!
This is a great resource fo me as a newbie in this endeavor! Thank you one and all for shareing your knowledge freely.
Steve
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IN GOD WE TRUST