Adam asks for it:

> and give anybody and everybody a chance to tell me "all those things I
wish
> someone had told me when I was starting out"  :-)

First and foremost - learn to sharpen. Your early efforts are often doomed
to failure because the tools aren't sharp - can't function properly because
they aren't sharp - and the new user doesn't know how they should function
or how to sharpen them.

All else will follow - slowly at first, but what's your hurry?

Alan N. Graham