Hello from West Virginia

I am new to blacksmithing. I’ve been wanting to start for awhile now until I finally decided to just go for it. Learned my first lesson soft wood and soft steel makes for an unusable knife. Of course I didn’t find that out till it was to late. Talking to a smith that I work with I showed him my blade and explained the troubles I had with it. Now I’m ready to do some that I can put to use. My next challenge is forge welding drill cable that I obtained from the rig that I work and making blade I can use for camping.