It's quite alright, I didn't pick up any rude tone at all in Glenn's posts, they were extremely helpful, I've been smithing for almost a month now, have about 4 hours after work every day to clang away in the back yard and experiment with methods I've seen mainly on YouTube, I've made some knife blanks but I haven't gotten past that stage, no heat treat or grinding, just basic shapes, I'm using a can of railroad spikes my grandpa gave me when he learned I was getting the tools together the start smithing, as I mentioned I built my own charcoal powered forge, I am using what was advertised as a "Nordic" style hammer which is big and beefy, being a former high school athlete I'm fond of the heavier weight, I'm also using my family's anvil (my great grandfather was a blacksmith and so was his father, etc.) I recovered the anvil from the back of my uncle's shop where it was gathering dust, and since then I've been testing whatever I have found on YouTube that looks like an effective technique! I'm really glad I found this forum and apologize for sounding like such a child with a twinkle in his eye with my posts, just excited to find such a large community willing to help!