I haven't done any forging or scratch building yet, but I've always loved to modify knives. I like to take a knife with a good blade, but with a handle or furniture that's not up to snuff, and refinish it myself, sometimes making my own handles. I find that a lot of production blades are like that: the steel is good, but the rest of the furniture and such often is kinda substandard because they're cranked out on an assembly line. But with a bit of improvement you can make yourself quite a nice, personalized knife that will perform just as well and look the part of a custom-built one.