I'm 34, married with two beautiful kids.

I made my first Kit knife as a gift for my dad in the chrismas of 2008 and got hooked on making knives. I completed two more kit knives and began saving for a grinder so I could make blades on my own and swore off kit knives for good. I've had an interest in forging from the start but have been making stock removal knives to learn the basics of knifemaking while working towards getting a hot shop set up.

I have previously worked doing construction work of one type or another, roofing, removing asbestos, barn building, and most recently installing hurricane shutters. In march of 2008 our son was born 5 weeks pre-mature and we REALLY did not want to put him in a daycare facility from day one. At this same time the bottom had completely fallen out of new home construction in our area so my great job had fizzled to nothing so we made the desicion that I would become a stay at home Dad at least until our preemie was a bit bigger. We're now a family of four [img]http://www.americanbladesmiths.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif[/img] and making knives has become my stress relief from the most difficult job I've ever had.

As I suspect most folks interested in forging, it has been my dream to attend the Introduction to bladesmithing class in Arkansas which seemed like an impossible dream, LOL. However I managed to work it out to attend while my wife was on maternity leave and completed the May 14th-28th 2010 class with instructers Jim Walker and John White the first week and Dan Petersen the second. I'm currently making the transition from stock removing and putting my forge together along with getting the basics for home forging but I've got plenty of forged blades from class to keep me busy while I'm building my forge etc.

My goals for the immediate future are improve fit and finish and prepare for JS performance testing after blade show 2011.

That about covers it for the time being [img]http://www.americanbladesmiths.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif[/img] - Josh