fidsah

Specifically, there are two types of work I'm interested in right now. First, I'll be getting into some casting, and I've found plenty of good material on how I'll be setting up a home casting operation. I'm going to start building my first furnace tomorrow, and hope to have it good to go by the end of the weekend. The information I'm requesting here, though, is more for blacksmithing, and possibly blade work. I figure do some basic smithing to see if I've got a taste for it or whatnot, but I do need to learn quite the bit before I can just start hammering steel. The website you gave me has some good information, and I'll have to see about attending some of the local meetings to see if I can find anything, however, I do not know about ILL. Could you explain that a bit?

So now, I'm looking to get into some hobby metal working and whatnot, and I'm a bit unaware of the entirety of what I need to know, and what good resources to learn from are. Are there any good collections of information regarding what tools, workshop, materials, etc are required to begin playing around? Any good resources for proper learning so that it can become more than just playing around? Any good recommendations for a basic setup and beginner project? What is a good expected startup cost for getting into forging? Are there any other good questions I didn't ask that I should? Thanks muchly.