[rhrocker]

Ray, I don't know if this really fits "custom" or not, but since we're defining terms here, I thought I'd mention it; There seemingly needs to be a differience between someone that purchases Damascus to use as his/her blade, and someone that makes his/her own Damascus. To make this stuff takes hours and hours, and special equipment if you're prepared to do the total HT and Tempering. That should somehow be noted into the deffinition of custom when it applies. I see beautiful knives almost every day on the web, where the make says he purchased his/her damascus from this person or this site. That's great! Nothing wrong with that at all, I'm all for spreading the beauty of Damascus all over the knife making place. Should, however, that person (that buys the damascus) somehow state that it's bought steel, and not made damuscus? I make all of mine, Fritz and Bowie got me started on more complex patterns quite a while back. So should that be considered in the "Custom" deffinition somehow? Just a thought, may not even go here.