Drako11

What are wootz?? If I new I might know where to get some lol. You never know! :D

That is amazing!! How did they do that??

I used to enjoy sports greatly, played Soccer for nine years. However, once I got into highschool and began acting I had no time and stopped. For awhile I missed it, but I must say I have found much more rewarding hings in life then playing sports. Not trying to diss sports or anything, if that is your thing then more power to you, but for me I have found other things. For instance smithing, and this along with school, a bum ankle, and other hobbies I have no time for sports. : ) *throws ten cents in the jar*

Well there is a tutorial on Anvilfire.com on how to make roses. You could try shrinking that down, but I think it might be to complicated to shrink. Just throwing out an idea here: If you had two real small chisels you could form the end of the stock into a small ball then start cutting downward a little from the outside in with a sharp chisel. (Not cutting off pieces, just sort of "dicing" the end) Then take the other small chisel, a dull one, and use it to shape the "diced" end into petals. OR if you don't want to go to those extremes, just form a ball like before and use a small chisel to "draw" petals on the ball instead of cutting and shaping. Not sure if any of these will work, but just trying to help with what little experience I have! : )

Mick, I most definitely do not have the smithing skill to start a business! lol It's just with college coming up fast, I feel I need to start deciding what it is I want to start focusing on for a career. If I decide it is smithing, then I will pursue as much education as possible, and devote a large majority of my time to smithing. I would also begin gathering tools, thinking of a work area, etc. etc. So I guess you could say a the moment I am just testing the waters, before I devote myself to swim. : )

ThomasPowers now that you mention it, I believe there is actually an amusement park a couple hours away from me called Dollywood, and I believe they do a lot of recreation exhibits and such they might love to have a blacksmith! Actually I had kind of thought of something like his before, there is a little local tourist attraction here where I live a little amish community and a sort of antique mall/fleamarket area has sprung up around it. I think I could do pretty good setting up a shop near there, or maybe convince someone they need a blacksmith in Davy Crockett State Park. : P

Nice knife! I made one like this once, I uess my idea was to make a sort of kitchen dicing knife. I couldn't get anyone else to like it though. They kept trying to hold it upside down, or complained I put the blade upside down. Anyways like your design, and the knife!

Thanks for all the wonderful suggestions, advice, and compliments guys! Great to know there are this many people who are willing to throw out their own life experiences and thoughts. MarkC: I was actually planning on going into the marines before I ever got into blacksmithing, my father is life time military, and I thought hey I'll learn a lot and pay for college. However, I crushed my ankle in February in a car wreck, and I now have a limp and can't run so that is out. BlackCrow: I totally agree with you about the debt issue. I have seen what it does personally in my own family. Not going to go into details though. Well again thanks for everything and if anyone has anything they want to add go right ahaed! : D

Wow those hammers look to beautiful to use..... XD

Yes I spoke in haste Jeff Bly. My intentions are to help her out whenever she needs it and maybe one day when she decides she doesn't want to keep the anvil and misc anymore she may remember me. : ) If not I am most greatful for what she did give me. Oh and I took a better look at the blowers today. I actually have a Buffalo Company Blower, and two Champion blowers. One of the champion blowers is a big geared one, but it is missing a little gear that goes between the handle gear and fan gear. Anywho still have yet to locate my camera, but when i do pictures shall be posted!

Alright the most frequent thing I have heard mentioned is college. I do wish to go to college, exactly for what I don't know maybe marketing or business. I am really an artsy kind of person, blacksmithing, acting, and writing are my favorite things to do, but all those don't really seem to be things that pay to well. So anyways, lets shift this questions around a little. Could Blacksmithing pay for college? That maybe seems more reasonable then going full out into a blacksmithing business.

Ok, so I just love blacksmithing, as I know everyone does. However, I love it to the point I would love to try making a living doing it. I am about to turn eighteen and I still need a lot of training, practice, a workplace, and more tools. I am just wondering if anyone on here makes a living blacksmithing. For them I have a few questions. 1. Is this a reasonable decision for someone my age? Should I pick up something else and just hobby smith? (I thought maybe I could shoe horses or something I don't know) 2. What kind of lifestyle is full time smithing? (Hot and hard I imagine.) 3. What kind of money is in this? Also if you have any other information or input I would love to hear it, thanks!!