hey Tony

it is just leafspring but 5160 is a great steel.. harmonically balanced .. i'm not sure if it is the same thing but i have seen some of Howard Clark's apprentices HT steel .. they use clay lumps spaced at intervals along the blade.. that way the blade is ht'd at resonance harmonies of the steel and any shock or resonance gets dampened before it gets to the handle..

i'm not sure about that .. i think they are just putting hard and soft spots next to each other, which can only be really tested by destroying the blades.. .. Dan's idea seems to be that the Res C handle absorbs the shock so the steel can be HT's properly and the m,aximum strngth, edge holding ability etc extracted..

of course this may be all wrong <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

ug