The majority of my knives are made by removing stock from bar stock steel purchased from steel manufacturers. One of the more objectively important aspects of making a knife is the heat treating of the blade, and it’s of utmost important to me that I know the composition of the steel I’m using so that I may HT it correctly. Therefore I don’t use a lot of scrap steels, files, railroad spikes or what have you. I do occasionally forge in order to add texture to a piece or change shape here or there, but not as often as I remove stock by using an angle grinder, belt grinder, files, sandpaper, dremils, drills and saws.