Hi guys! I have made a whopping 4 blades so far and loved everyone of them! Well except the aching shoulder, a bruised toe and the one time I dipped my finger in the quench oil to see if it was hot enough. This has been a dream of mine since childhood. I don’t like to rush things so I waited till my late forties to get started. I started with a weed burner, a couple ceramic bricks, a chunk of railroad track and an old 3lb maul. It took me 2 20lb propane cans to form a blade from a rail road spike and more hammering than I care to remember. Well I upgraded a few things in the last year or so. Got a real life anvil (thanks to my buddy Kieth) , a three burner gas forge (thanks to my lovely wife who got sick of me complaining about how long it took to heat steel with a weed burner ) and a small selection of blacksmith hand tools ( thanks flea markets). I am of course still on a painfully steep learning curve and it seems I spend as much time correcting errors as anything else. I have gotten all my theoretical information off the web from random sites. What a mess that can be. So I figured I’d get in with the folks who know. And here I am. Any how I expect to be studying here quite a bit and am looking forward to being a member in this community . Here’s my last two doodads. Be gentle. Eegads. Pics were too big. Sorry.