Book excerpt: This book provides everything you need to know to get a head start on becoming a blade smith. This book is heavily illustrated with over 250 full-color photographs. The text details every aspect of the craft and provides step-by-step instructions as well as teaches tricks of the trade that will make each build a little easier. The book is designed to not only explain each step but also visually depict the process. The book is written for the layman and details making a full tang fixed blade knife by using the stock removal method, hand forging a hidden tang blade, and crafting a knife from a pre-cut commercially available knife blank. Learn what tools you will need, what steel is the best choice, how to profile the knifes shape, how to grind flat bevels, hollow grinds and full flat bevels, how to harden the steel blade so it will be hard enough to hold and edge and strong enough not to break. The book also covers creative aspects of the craft like decorative blade etching and blade textures which allow the maker to transform a standard knife into a one of a kind piece of metal art. Whether it's for hunting or kitchen use, anyone interested in learning how to make a knife will surely find this book informative and indispensable.