Hello everyone! My name is William, I have been an ABS apprentice smith for over a year now and while I have read many of the threads on the forums here I never officially joined up or posted. I am 24 years old and an a Fine Arts major and will be transferring to a university in the fall. I went to my first Hammer-In in Visalia in October and it was a great experience. It was the first time I had the opportunity to meet with fellow smiths and pick the brains of Mastersmith's like Michael Vagnino, Tom Ferry and Bob Kramer. It is amazing how much clearer something becomes when you see someone demonstrate or explain something in person as opposed to just reading about it.

I am very fortunate to have access to many tools and equipment that it would be too expensive for someone like me to actually buy. MiG and TiG welders, and a large mill and lathe. I have taken over a corner of my father's shop where they fabricate large nitrogen plants and oilfield equipment. I honestly do not know how I could have gotten started with any of this without access to the large supply of scrap metal out in that yard. I have made a nice little workshop for myself and have made my propane forge and small casting furnace, along with my 30 ton hydraulic press (I like to say 30 cause it sounds good, but after all the tinkering and replacing of hoses and whatnot I honestly don't know what it is anymore). I just finished my electric heat treating oven and it works beautifully, I love having such precise control over temperature. I only melted the coils at the posts twice before I figured it all out. I am currently doing an upgrade and remodel of my press making it much more stable and practical to swap in different dies. I am also hoping to do the same to my belt sander, but contact wheels are so damned expensive.

Anyways just this last month I finished a blade that I am very proud of, it is in my opinion the best one I have ever made. Not just in visual appearance, but in actual craft as well. It is a combination of all of the things I have learned on this journey thus far, and I finally feel as though I should become more active in the community because of it.

This was a gift for my best friend's 25th birthday. It is 1080/15n20 feather pattern Damascus, with 1010/1070/Copper Mokume-Gane bolster, Nickle Silver pins, and (the personal touch) a teak handle made from the end of my friends speargun when it got chopped in half by a boat in Catalina last summer. He knew I was making him a chef's knife I told him I would make whatever pattern he wanted it didn't matter if I hadn't done it before, I would figure it out. So he picked a feather pattern. It took me 3 attempts to get it right. I actually saved the first billet as a hilarious example of having almost everything go wrong right at the very end.

Ok I got a little off topic from just an introduction but anyways I plan on getting more involved on the forums in the future and sharing in everyone's experiences and adventures!