I believe that pride is very much a sin...
That being said, I am the type of person who will not attempt a task until I feel that I have a reasonable chance of being proud of the results. There was a LOT of learning that I had to do before purchasing even my first bar of steel, let alone touching it to a grinder. And I try to plan everything in advance.
You want to know what was {pretty much} the first tool that I ever bought for knife making?... Believe it or not, it was 5-gallons of Parks 50. I didn't have a grinder. I didn't have steel. I did not have a kiln or a quench tank in which to put the oil. But I had decided that I'd eventually like to try my hand at a hamon/differential heat treat. I had done a great deal of reading on which steels are which, and which ones would work best for what I wanted. And I also read-up on how they should be heat treated without shattering into a million pieces (a la water quench). Patrick had Parks 50 posted on the for-sale forum (and I wasn't sure how long the opportunity would last) so I bought some. That 5-gallon pail sat in my basement for half-a-year calling me to get things started.
So then, sometime in January, I bought some bars of 1080 and 1095 from Mr. Kelly Cupples (a great guy to deal with by-the-way). About the same time, I ordered my KMG from Rob (another excellent transaction).:thumbup: There is a thread somewhere around these forums where a number of kind forumites provided guidance and insight that proved instrumental in getting my VFD-driven motor running.
Right about now, many people would have just fired-up their grinder and started making dust. I didn't. I didn't want to make dust, I wanted to make knives... and I realized that I had no idea how to go about grinding a knife. Again, this is where a couple of friendly forumites stepped in. I was given the opportunity to spend the better part of a day in Mr. Nick Wheeler's shop... where I learned a great many things about forges, damascus, presses, refractory cement and cleanliness.
He also took the time to show me some methods for laying out a knife, flat-grinding and tang-tapering. One thing that really impresses me about Nick is the focus he puts on precision and clean lines. You don't see much of the blending that a lot of makers use (oftentimes to hide mistakes). All lines are crisp and clean. He had drawers full of abandoned blades that many makers would proudly display. That made an impression.
A few weeks later, I had the opportunity to hang out with Matt Cook of Pinoy knife. I have always been a fan of the balisong, and when I heard that Matt had moved to the area I jumped at the chance to spend the day at his place. The dude drinks a lot of Dr. Pepper. He's also mad genius... (by "mad", I mean
as a hatter 
... by "genius", I mean "
mad as a hatter".) The dude can grind. Anyone that can grind as well as he can on a single-speed Wilton square wheel screaming balls-out is a grinding genius in my book. His shop, on the other hand, is nowhere near as clean as Nick's.
Matt showed me quite a bit about hollow-grinding, scotch-brite, buffers, epoxy, handles, pins and leather. I left his shop with a hollow-ground D2 blade with a beautiful set of stabilized California Buck-eye scales attached (and curing)... and also a fear of gigantic cats.
Since then I have ground a handful of blades of different designs: flat-ground skinners and small Bowies, hollow-ground recurves both small and large. With this year's tax return I was able to finally invest in a HT kiln. I chose to finish this knife first for several reasons. To begin with, I figured I would keep it simple for my first HT by through-hardening rather than attempting a hamon. This knife seemed like it would be great with a through-hardened blade... and being made from 1080, probably wouldn't have a very visible or active hamon anyway. Secondly, my design for this blade (unlike some of the others) utilizes a simple handle design; just scales... no bolsters or guards. Keeping it simple.
Thanks for all the feedback.
Dave; yep, that end of the shop is fairly clean. Must be Nick's influence.
Actually, I had to do quite a bit of clean-up just to find a space to put the kiln and quench. Eventually I'd like to build another work-bench with cabinets at that location for them both to sit on. The other end of the shop (near the grinder) is not nearly so clean.
Thanks to everyone who helped me get this far. This forum has been, and continues to be, an invaluable resource for newbs like myself.
Now I have to finish assembling my etcher.
Erin
... dude, I wrote a book.
