Maybe it's not always about skipping basics. Sometimes people just learn in a different order. The end result matters more than the path they took.

Found a nest that size once, but it was full of old eggshells. The birds must have raised a whole family and moved on. Always surprises me how much material they can pack in there.

Forget the forge versus hammer debate. The real split is between making art and making parts. A perfect repeatable heat lets you make the same thing over and over, which is fine. But chasing that perfect heat can kill the happy accidents that make a piece unique. Sometimes the metal tells you what it wants at 2100 degrees, not 2300. Your neighbor's point is about listening, not just hitting.

Sounds like you just got lucky unlike @max_foster.

That steam flash is the worst. Letting it go to black heat is the only thing that worked for me too. A cheap infrared thermometer helps a ton for checking the actual temp before the quench. Getting that wrong just ruins the whole piece.