Good afternoon, everyone! I'm finally getting around to posting my intro after a few weeks. I've been bladesmithing for about 4 years. I'm active duty Air Force (going on 21 years now) and was never really in the position to pursue my dreams of knife making until almost five years ago when I was stationed in Maryland and was in a non-deployable, stable assignment. That let me start building my shop and get to some great hammer ins at Baltimore Knife and Sword (where I met JJ Simon, who's taught me more than I could ever repay), and Ashokan, where I met Kevin Cashen, Nick Rossi, Tom Ward, Matt Parkinson, and many other of our esteemed colleagues here. I just got moved to Scott Air Force Base across the river from St. Louis, and love the area. I was even privelaged enough to watch Craig Camerer conduct his master smith performance test. To say I've been fortunate in who I've met and what I've been able to learn would be a ridiculous understatement. I started out learning by stock removal since I heard that it was one of the hardest parts of this, and an easy way to mess up several hours of forging was 30 seconds on a grinder. I figured I'd learn the hard part first, as well as start learning about metallurgy, design, heat treat, business, etc... Finally, I felt that I was good enough (with just enough knowledge to be dangerous) to really benefit from membership in the ABS and the continued development that comes with it. I'm looking forward to working with you all and if you're ever in the area, give me a shout!