Revisiting this thread with another question.

Looking through my Atlanta Cutlery catalog a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that they have Damascus blanks for the Sgian Dubh. Do these need to be heat treated in the same way as the carbon blanks? I assume they do, but I thought I'd ask before I went to a lot of trouble doing it, only to find out that I needn't have bothered.

Also, does anyone have any tips on making the sheath for the blade?