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So here I stand, looking over the great precipice that is the world of blacksmithing, metalworking, welding...
This is the start of my journey. Not sure what exactly lit the forge inside me that made me turn down this path, but I know it's going to be an obsession..it's already begun.
I've made contact with some smiths. I've started gathering scrap metal, old files, old hammers, pieces of rail line for my first anvil, and I've started scanning the horizon for that ever-elusive first 'real' anvil. I've also picked up an early 1900's Buffalo Forge 200 Silent 14' blower in fine condition (though a bit grease laden and stiff) and a massively heavy, hand made/welded, forge table replete with 'heavy duty vulcan tuyere' (so sayeth the lettering..). I'm on my way.
I have yet to touch hammer to hot steel.. the waiting is killing me. I am young enough to be wildly impatient, but old enough to know to wait until I am set up properly. That is where the payoff will be; When I am properly set up with all things in place; my coal is lit and stoked (by hand with that glorious old Buffalo relic), and I shove that first piece of old metal in there and watch my first heat...building until the yellow is right, pulling it out and placing it on my anvil and feeling the thrill as I lift my hammer, the moment of that first strike! My first quench. My first anneal. My first temper...and on and on. Soon.
But tonight I stand at the edge..and look out at you all with envy. And I wait.
This is the start of my journey. Not sure what exactly lit the forge inside me that made me turn down this path, but I know it's going to be an obsession..it's already begun.
I've made contact with some smiths. I've started gathering scrap metal, old files, old hammers, pieces of rail line for my first anvil, and I've started scanning the horizon for that ever-elusive first 'real' anvil. I've also picked up an early 1900's Buffalo Forge 200 Silent 14' blower in fine condition (though a bit grease laden and stiff) and a massively heavy, hand made/welded, forge table replete with 'heavy duty vulcan tuyere' (so sayeth the lettering..). I'm on my way.
I have yet to touch hammer to hot steel.. the waiting is killing me. I am young enough to be wildly impatient, but old enough to know to wait until I am set up properly. That is where the payoff will be; When I am properly set up with all things in place; my coal is lit and stoked (by hand with that glorious old Buffalo relic), and I shove that first piece of old metal in there and watch my first heat...building until the yellow is right, pulling it out and placing it on my anvil and feeling the thrill as I lift my hammer, the moment of that first strike! My first quench. My first anneal. My first temper...and on and on. Soon.
But tonight I stand at the edge..and look out at you all with envy. And I wait.
