Thanks Rainwalker I really liked reading your story. I find that a lot of knoledge from primitive cultures have a lot of value and truth. When I worked at the local army surplus we also sold traps and bought furs so I met a lot of really cool old indian trappers (and one really nice young one)and they really knew their stuff.
They knew good blades and I sold them a bunch of moras I made my boss buy.
We had 2 kinds of axes cheap crappy chinese ones with fibreglass handles and nice but expensive Oxheads. Those old guys would all do the same thing and flick the blade with their finger. The Oxheads had a great heat treat and rang like a fine bell while the chinese ones thudded and even sounded bad. It was really neat how these old guys could tell a good blade without knowing anything about which are the cool super steels or big names or even without seeing the price.