Looks good Magnum! If you have decided to do the stock removal thing instead of building a forge, you might want to consider leaf springs. They are made of excellent steel, and a lot of them are 5160(one of my personal favs). Surely there are some leaf spring shops in your area that you could visit. It is best to try and buy new spring steel. A lot of times the shops will sell you the end pieces that they cut off for cheap. They aren't much use to them anyway, so you just offer them a few bucks for them and tell them you don't need a receipt. We have one local knifemaker here that gets all of his steel that way and saves about 60% over buying from supply houses. You can also use used leaf springs but you really have to watch out for stress cracks. Find out if you have a shop that makes up leaf spring packs and pay them a visit.

Something else any of you interested in making your own blades might want to check out is this book http://www.amazon.com/Wayne-Goddards-50-Knife-Shop/dp/0873419936 , It has a lot of good info on how to do things on a budget but still do them right. I even found it in my local library.