Hello from southern Connecticut

[Chris Pariso]

Hey everyone,

I just realized I dove right into firing off questions on the forum without properly introducing myself first. As the title says, I'm living in Connecticut, down by the New York border. I just started smithing a couple of weeks ago, with the forge setup being a gift from my wife for my first Father's Day as an actual dad. It's a simple setup - one propane burner, a bunch of hard fire bricks, and a 50lb block of cast iron - but it's working well enough so far.

As far as why I'd start doing something more addictive than crack and triple the cost, I've always had the mindset that if you can't find exactly what you're looking for, make it yourself. Wood, leather, carpentry... I even learned two different programming languages, because I couldn't find software to do what I needed. That said, I spent over 11 years working in professional kitchens as a pastry chef, and have been cooking since I was tall enough to reach the counter. It was only a matter of time before I started making my own kitchen knives from scratch, rather than just buying blanks and putting handles on them. I've also trained in a variety of martial arts, including a few that are heavily blade-focused, for nearly two decades, but I think it will be a long time before I make a knife for those purposes. If I'm going to make something that a life could potentially rely on, I want to be absolutely sure it's not going to fail because I screwed something up.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Welcome to the insanity, sounds like you will fit right in with the rest of us addicts.