>>670079Plain old 1095 is pretty damn good knife steel.
>>670860Pretty much this, kinda. Old guy terminology alert: any knife with a tang that extends the complete usable length of the handle is a full tang knife, even one with a skinny stick tang. Ka-Bar and three of the knives in this pic come to mind. All 4 are full tang, only the second one (the Old Timer with the trailing point blade) has slab handles. I think the other three are what you're referring to as a peened tang. Stick tang (if they are roughly the same tang size through most of the handle) or rat-tail tang (if the tang becomes notably smaller as it goes toward the pommel) are the terms I'd use. Correct me if I've misunderstood you, it's good to know what our words mean when we're talking to each other.