Ouch

Day 1
I have managed not to burn myself more than eight times on flying sparks.  I have no idea how Ken manages to grab things out of the forge--that iron has to way to hot to handle.  The best I can guess is that it's years of practice.
Basically, I was shown how to make a hook, then given a piece of iron and told to go for it.  Ken's shop uses 5 forges because, unlike other blacksmiths, they make everything short of the iron, itself.  What normally happens is that a shop will use pre-made pieces from a catalogue and then adapt them to whatever the customer wants. Ken and his group, however, make their pieces - rails, fire places, wall hangings, whatever - completely from scratch.  He says that most shops of similar size have fewer forges because of this.  In all honesty, I respect that they don't use templates.  I think it's amazing., the amount of dedication required to do that.
Anyway, I started a hook, and I managed to make the hook part--it's the other end that's killing me.  I need to flatten the other end into a circular shape, but it's looking more like a gender-confused blow fish than a circle.  I'm going to try again, tomorrow.