Matt,
My friend has been making knives for about a year. He has a Bader grinder. He's been nice enough to let me come over to his shop to watch him. Then, he let me practice grinding with some cheap steel bars. After ginding on 4 or 5 bars to get the feel gave me some ATS-34 to work with. I had bought some handle material and corbys. I came up with a couple designs and made a template out of plexiglass. I traced on to the steel. Then cut it out and profiled on the belt grinder. You know what happens from there.
Anyway, I've been able to use his equipment to see if this is something a really like before dropping 3 to 4 grand on building a shop in my basement and getting the equipment I need. So sorry Matt if it sounds stange, but it is what it is. And Yes I'm hooked and I'll begin building a nice shop in my basement in the next couple of weeks. There will be more to come.
-Barker