Winner of Thomp's Detail Knife - SCGOBBLER

Congratulations to Walt (scgobbler) the winner of the little detail knife.  And since Walt is a relatively new wood carver, I was going to tell him about this little knife, and how it should be used when I send it to him.  But thinking about it, I realized that we can all benefit from the explanation.
Thomp made this little knife from an inexpensive (cheap) little file.  Thomp would buy the package of the 8 inch files and pull out the flat and oval ones to make knife blades.  The package of files came from China or India, and were very cheap.  The metal that files are made from is very hard, therefore brittle.  But when properly shaped and sharpened, they hold an edge quite well.  However, they will not stand any twisting, prying, or aggressive action, without breaking.  These little knives are only intended as finishing or detail knives, not roughing knives.  As Ol' Thomp was prone to say. "when using these knives, think rice, small grains of rice.  Your chips should not be larger than grains of rice.  And as knife maker John Dunkle says, "they're not to pry hubcaps off".  But for carving little noses, they're great.