Guild Wars 2

So, I currently have the exotic Spinal Blades, but don’t have the crafting yet to make it ascended.

If I equip it on character 1, and eventually get the crafting to make the gift of blades on character 2, I can still throw it all in the forge on character 1, the gift isn’t soulbound, correct?

Second question, if I equip and soulbind the exotic version on a character, then ascend it in the forge, does the ascended version go back to account bound or remain soulbound?

Whenever you create an item in the mystic forge, it will be account bound. This is because you create an entirely new item.