It all sounds like good advice. I'm gonna use my hunk of steel as is for now and see how it goes.
I am 100% sure this thing is mild steel. The reason for the 9018 instead of Stoody 1105 or something similar is that I have 50# of 9018 on hand.
I have some ruff sawed oak 8"x 9"x12' I'm going to build my stand out of and then I plan to build a propane fired forge.
Thanks for all the sound advice and I'm sure I'll be back with more questions.