My first attempt at blacksmithing — a butter knife made from a piece of iron rebar.

It doesn’t take a whole lot of equipment to forge a knife, but it does take significant practice. My cousin (who owned the forge) made much nicer pieces. The forge itself was only a couple hundred bucks, but we easily went through a tank of propane in an evening. Didn’t help that we fueled ourselves on a case of beer.

Also pictured: some cool rocks. Oh, and I made that red ceder shelf out of a canoe seat that didn’t fit right, when I was building canoes.