David Moon Forge

Making a stabilized curly maple handle on a MagnaCut stainless steel chef knife

Making a Desert ironwood handle on a high carbon steel chef knife 80CrV2 steel

I had a catastrophic failure with this leopard tank barrel Damascus from Damaworks. Anybody know what would have caused this?
I forged the blade to shape. Then I took it out of the forge and let it air cool before I was going to put it in the kiln to anneal it. While it was sitting on the wire rack, I started to hear tings and noticed a huge crack forming down the center. it kept getting bigger and bigger, until I was eventually able to pull the blade completely apart.