It was suggested to me here to find a class to get a good working foundation.  I took two weekend classes at Tillers International, a non-profit organization near Kalamazoo Michigan and thought it was great.  They covered alot of stuff I wanted to learn.  The first weekend was blacksmith basics and gave me some insight into what I had been doing right and wrong.  The following week was a high carbon knife blade class and they covered everything to make a tempered knife start to finish.  The instructors were great.  They really seem to love the work and teaching it to others.  I would reccomend their classes to anyone interested in learning the basics.  I have enclosed pictures of what we made.  

Excellent start!  Make sure you keep them and note your improvement over time. I still have my first forged iron.