A fellow here in Fairbanks makes damascus knife blades by laying chainsaw chain on old files and forging and twisting them into damascus with a trip hammer. They look very nice and seem to sharpen to a very good edge. I brought him a bundle of old files I found at an abandoned gold mine for he and his students to play with.

Here's my SERE school survival knife. They said it was made from the left spring of an old Ford. It is very hard, and holds a hard, sharp edge. I bought this from a Negrito native in the Philippines. He had a scar in his forehttp://i200.photobucket.com/albums/a...Knives/002.jpgarm from a Japanese bayonet. This guy really hated Japanese.