DarthTaco

I was purely stating that i needed the five hours for the project, nothing more. My knife making interest goes far beyond just the academic requirement, trust me I know it'll take longer than five hours to even get the basics.

I really do enjoy bladesmithing, and I have found it tedious at times, and I am by no means even half way to bad, I mean I've only forged two knives, the first was wicked ugly, the second was a bit better, and I recently had my first hunk of steel burn up :(. Heating up a bell peen hammer head to turn into a tomahawk, just about done drifting the eye, and as I pull it out of the fire the right wall was going just like a sparkler.

Yeah, I was just thinking of the bladesmithing forums as well, I'd like to do some regular blacksmithing as well, I'm just trying to find projects that I can do with the abundance of railroad spikes I have laying around. Peter, I'll do just that if I'm ever in the Auburn area, but unfortunately it's about 1.5 hour away from me.

I'll definitely check out the classes and such, but I'm still looking for something a tad more immediate and local. It only really has to be five hours of total "internship or work place experience", and I know with any kind of metal working that can go by very fast. I'm trying to keep the costs of this project low, as being a student, my income isn't very high (heck, I'm even selling off my baseball cards for some cash), but those look great for a long term deal. Edited for language

It's OK, I figure between here, bladeforums, and asking around locally, I'll find someone, I'm making due with my brake drum forge but my shop-vac blower just died. Probably going to pick up a cheapo hair dryer to get me through until I can afford something better.

Hey guys, I posted this on Bladeforums, and was told to post here as well I'm a 17 year old Senior in high school, and aspiring bladesmith. I've always been interested in blades, and their forging process, but I never really had the means to build a forge, acquire tools, etc. but this past summer my dad and I built our first forge, and started beating on railroad spikes, just to see what we could do. In order to graduate highschool we have to do a big career project due in April, but I've hit my saturation point of what I can probably do on my own in that period of time without any form of physical aid. Although I've recently enlisted into the United States Army, I chose blacksmithing/bladesmithing as the career choice for this project, mainly because it held more interrest to me, and it was something I could bring a physical product in for, but one of the requirements is hands on experience with a mentor in the field of study. If there are any bladesmiths in the Newport area (in Maine), within maybe 45 minute driving distance that wouldn't mind teaching me a few things, I'd be more than elated to get in contact, and possibly meet up to work a little bit. Thanks for any responses. -Jeff Hill.