I had a few feet of mild steel flat stock that I grabbed for scrap price from a local fab shop when I first started grinding. Gave me a pretty good feel for what knife steel would grind like, but at a fraction of the cost. I also started with a work rest to help steady myself, and very simple, straight shaped blades. I also started with chisel grinds, just to get the hang of getting "one side" presentable, and after I felt pretty good with that, I started grinding both sides to a center line.
One tool that I only very recently started using, but kind of wish I had invested in much early, is a file/grinding guide. That can certainly help take SOME of the guess work out of matching up plunge lines.[/QUOT I know wat you are talking about with that guide.There is a guy on here who sells them 120.00 I believe I would love one of those.I got a cheap Grizzly grinder for now and on my last blank I used a jig and set my shelve at 4degress it was ok until I slipped and messed it up.But for some reasome my grind would only go about a 1/2 ' high then stop using my jig.Thanx Rick!