My brother sent me a smallish piece of white stone which I believe was a by product of some kind of manufacturing procedure- does silicon carbide ring a bell? Anyhow, it is similar to those ceramic sticks sold for sharpening, but flat and probably finer. I use it wet to touch up my pocket knife and my good (Japanese laminated) cooking knives, and they stay sharp without wearing down much steel. Once the blades are sharp that's the only thing they need to stay sharp. If you come across one of those grab it. It'll never wear out. But I often use the utility knife for my little bit of grafting just because the blade is small and sharp. I've made a blade out of bandsaw scrap that I think will be good but I don't have it hefted yet. I wanted to use that this year. M

Marc, if someone is using it to cut away from them, they must be very experienced since the knife is working strongly against them. If you are cutting toward yourself with a grafting knife the flat part of the blade faces the wood, and as the cut gets longer the flat blade rests perfectly flat along the wood and helps guide the progress of the cut by the alignment with the already-cut flat surface. Basically, it makes it super easy to make a very flat cut and if you have two flat cuts you get great stock/scion alignment. If you are cutting away you only have the short bevel area against the wood and unless your hands are very good the knife will wobble up and down and you will get a jagged cut. Scott

whoops, sorry for the double post, hope it can be deleted.

Help Me Find lists three offspring of Louis Philippe. One is a mutation; one is from its seed and one from its pollen. Archduke Charles is a mutation of Old Blush and has produced only mutations. That doesn't necessarily mean anything other than no one has reported raising any seedlings from it, but seedlings have been raised from Old Blush. Mel's Heritage may be fertile, or not. There are no listed crosses involving it, either direction. Again, though, that only means no one has reported raising any crosses from it. Of the three, I would think Mel's Heritage would be the most interesting to try, because of its parentage and the fact no one has reported any results from it. Unless you're going to try something really far out, like species crossed with Archduke Charles or Louis Philippe, you are likely to raise "more of the same" from them.