Brian - Alexander Weygers, in the Complete Modern Blacksmith, talked about doing the same sort of chamfering. I have been doing it on my own tools, especially chisels, because I make them from old files or the cut masonry nails (which are somewhere around 1095/W1-ish). I mean, I have to do something with the files that wear out, so I make a lot of my shop tools from them. Thanks for tips.

Russ - it appears that everyone has come up with a way to stabilize and make a cut at the right distance from the end. These methods are all so much better (once I get something like them worked out for my shop) than my approach. I was taking a small Japanese backsaw and making shallow cuts all around the knife handle, and then filing to clean as necessary.

I will have to adapt the idea of a cutter and a flat plate to guarantee the distance from cut to tip all the way around the handle to my shop and tools.

thanks again.