Nice homemade hose knife @ ~US$100

[AKScott]

Lowes has brass washers and I would imagine most hardware stores would have some available. Would these work?

They might could. Notice two out of three pictures in post three, the cross section of the tang is rectangular.

So you (I) would want a washer with enough of an outside diameter to cover all the handle end, but a small enough inside diameter opening that no handle end would show through the finished piece.

Another option would be to buy a ferrule or guard along with the blade when ordering off the internet. It would be sort of like a washer, only with a rectangular hole in the middle.

I'll go dig up one of my top ten favorite quotes I read in a book of all time here directly. briefly, you are limited only by your creativity.

EDIT: found it:

Guide to gunstock finishing and Care, A. Donald Newell, (c. 1949)

Chapter one: Do not think you are limited by what you have to work with. You are limited only insofar as you allow your intelligence and reasoning to do that limiting. Accept a narrow horizon and your work will reflect that thought, but by realization of the vast possibilities open to you your scope of operations will be broadened and your work will reflect that freedom of thought and action.