Thanks for the advice everyone. I've looked into building bigger forges like the ones you all mentioned but they feel like overkill until I've made a crappy knife or three and decide if I'm going to continue learning or get distracted by something else.
As far was a 2x42 sander, wouldn't a 4x36 sander be better since it's wider, or is it more important to have a longer belt?
I know I need a vice, I just didn't list it since it's a fairly inexpensive purchase that I'll get a lot of use out of even if I never make a single knife.
I seem to have offended some of you stock removal guys, I didn't mean to belittle your method at all, I know some fantastic knives are made this way, and if you're scaling up for commercial production there isn't really any other option but it just doesn't strike me the same way. Also yes I understand that even with forging I'll be using stock removal to create the bevels and edge geometry, that's why I listed a grinder as one of my required purchases
Also I don't intend to make anything out of stainless steel any time soon, I plan to make high carbon knifes. I love Japanese style blades and once I have some experience I want all of my blades to have the layers and hamon found on traditional Japanese blades which as far as I know pretty much always uses high carbon steels (I'm probably wrong though and yes I know you can add a hamon to stainless
). p.s. Yes I know the only reason Japanese smiths traditionally folded their steel was to evenly distribute the carbon and it's totally unnecessary with modern steels but I love the aesthetics.
Now that I think of it, this may be the main reason stock removal doesn't strike the same cord for me, you can't fold the steel and learn to create the beautiful patterns and layers that give the blade it's soul. A stainless blade created with stock removal feels like a plain ordinary blade crafted for mass production to me no matter how nice the fit and finish are. A blade with many layers and patterns flowing through the blade is a work of art that's as beautiful as it is functional. Of course this is just my personal opinion and you're welcome to say it's #### but that won't change it haha.