I finally got the poniard to the point I could harden and temper the blade. It’s been a long time getting to this point! Above, you can see it “in the white” after hardening and tempering, and then a good bit of cleaning up to remove the detritus left behind by the heat treatment.
I also carved in the waist (above the crossguard), refined the copper crossguard shape, and drilled the hole for the retaining rivet. While that may not look like much progress
, let me assure you it was much more complicated than those few items might indicate!
And a closeup of the crossguard area.
Thanks for looking!