Late to the party, but I'll add my 2 cents ...
I always thought that studded tires were overrated. I commute on a 26"-wheeled frankenbike, swap my "narrow" street tires for knobbies in winter, and adjust the way I ride. I'm lucky that in my city they clear bike lanes and paths throughout the winter. Nevertheless, I'd see other bike commuters on studded tires started to think they'd be a benefit.
I was too cheap/poor to buy studded tires, so I ended up making
one studded tire. I bought a pair of returned 2.2" knobby tires at the REI sale for $5, then made my one studded tire in a similar manner to
this instructable.
It was a lot of work to make one, so I stopped there. I run the studs tire on the front, vanilla knobby on the rear.
The nice thing about the DIY studs is that you can "tune" them to your needs. I tuned mine in same vein as semi-slick MTB tires that have knobs on the side and more minimal tread down the middle. I placed my studs further out and none on the middle running surface of the tire. This means that I still get pretty good traction for starts/stops while upright, but when I lean the bike (which, IMO, is when you really need traction), the studs bite and help keep me from sliding.
Regarding running the studded tire on the front, I turned to bike saint, Sheldon Brown, for advice. Here's his article on
tire rotation. Loosing the back wheel is manageable; loosing the front wheel is at, at best, painful, and at worst, catastrophic.
Finally, here's another page about
winter riding, in general.