Dear Joldfield,
Welcome, I am new here too. I am sure you will get some good advice here, there seems to be a good community of very knowledgeable and friendly people. Interesting you say about forging, my son, he is only 7, is fascinated with blacksmithing ever since he saw a forging demonstration at a Sheffield steelworks museum (MAGNA). He badgered me so much about wanting to do it himself that eventually I gave in. I don't have any kit so i got him to heat up a bit of coat hanger wire with the blow torch and hammer it with our claw hammer against the lump hammer's slab side as a improvised anvil. He made a nice little mini flat blade. That satisfied him temporarily but he was re-inspired last weekend by seeing the axe forging going on at the Bushcraft Show. Guess I had better learn a bit about forging myself and get some kit to keep this healthy interest of his going!!
Good luck with your quest.
James
and plan on expanding into blacksmithing as soon as i can. 
