I have always be interested in medieval era weapons. In 1986 I made my first blade, a sword I ground out of a piece of steel I found while exploring in the woods. From there I made a few smaller swords, then in 1990 I made my first official knife, again using the stock removal method. After a tour in the military, I worked at a machine shop and was able to fabricate a coal forge out of a break drum, bought an anvil, a hand crank blower and various hammers and tools. This is what started my smithing journey, I got a lot of practice using old bent and rusty discarded rail road spikes. In 1996 I made my first damascus (pattern welded steel) blade. I really enjoy making that type of blade due to the one of a kind aspect of each blade, like a finger print.