Bo Diddly

Frosty - You are correct on the experience and knowledge part, too often people think that they can pick up these types of trades easily and start turning out high quality products because those that have invested the time to learn the craft make it look "easy". Right now, my focus is going to be on making nails and small metal objects to get my base skills down pat. Down the road? I try not to look that far. Thomas - I just looked them up and I am fairly close to them, going to be doing more research on their group tonight. As for books I have "The Home Blacksmith", "The Backyard Blacksmith", "Practical Blacksmithing", and probably another five on the shelf that I haven't gotten to yet. I also picked up a few books on metallurgy since that is something I know I need more information on.

Hey y'all, I'm Anthony but most call me Bo (shortened from my last name). I live out here east of Austin in the country and love it; my day job is a firefighter and I spent 6 years in the Infantry. I've been fabricating and welding metal since my grandfather started teaching me when I was a kid. I have always wanted to forge something but never had the nerve to take the jump between the metal projects and the recent uptake in my woodworking. As cliche as it sounds, I just started watching Forged in Fire and was amazed what those guys could do with a short period of time and a lot of knowledge/experience so I decided to start looking into it. I've been lurking the forums for some time and have picked up quite a few different books in order to prepare myself for the journey down this rabbit hole. I tend to not post a lot in other forums I'm in but rather sit back and read and take in the free knowledge the old timers pass on.