Okay, I have been watching and reading and learning from this forum for a few years now. It was probably about four years ago when I got a renewed urge to make blades (i dabbled in high school). So I hit the internet to see what it would take. Somewhere I read to take it slow. I started with wooden swords. I made them for about a year and a half (in my spare time). Then I moved on to making armor and I made a few shield bosses, an articulating elbow and a pauldron.
Then Christmas (2011) my wife got me a little forge and I graduated myself to blade smithing. First thing I did was hammer dow