Blacksmithing Post #2 My Setup and Starting

So to start off, i had to set up my "shop" of sorts, i bought a 112 lb anvil and a log stand for this job,( the old ASO(Anvil Shaped Object) i used was a piece of railroad track and it didn't work very well). For setup, I had my forge to the left of my anvil for easy transfer between the two, i had my forge blower (a shop-vac set on blow) beside the forge so i could turn it off and on easily between heats. i had my first aid kit hanging on the fence near the forge, and a fire extinguisher below that.

Next is gear, i had my tongs beside my quenching barrel(not used in this project, a different quenching cup was used), i had my hammers in the logstand beside the anvil, and i had my vice grips/pliers on the logstand, all of my tools were within a step of me while working, so i didnt waste any of the heat in the metal. i wore gloves, long sleeves, a cotton jacket, jeans, close toed boots, eye protection, and ear protection, all of which are not flammable, and perfect for smithing( i later put on a leather, smithing apron).

This is the knife that i'm trying to make:

Once everything was setup, i had to start the forge, i stuffed paper into the stack and loaded charcoal over top of that. i lit the paper on fire with a blowtorch and let the charcoal get red hot, once it was all red hot i flipped it over into the forge, loaded more charcoal on top, and started the blower. once the new charcoal was burning well, i put my base object, a railroad spike, under the charcoal and closed the forge.

to finish this post, after the spike was almost white hot, i pulled it out using vice grips and started to try to flatten the head of the spike so the spike was more uniform.