what can i use for good forging metal?

[juggalo]

im new at forgin so i dont know what all the big terms are plus im in 9th grade so i need help what will have good forging metal?

[Finnr]

What do you plan to forge is the first question.
Finnr

[juggalo]

im interested in bladesmithing espescialy knives

[ChrisB]

what kind of tools do you have?

[Rich Hale]

Check the opeing page under getting started,,

[Frosty]

Be patient with us, we're not being short with you, your question is simply too vague to answer simply. In short you need to know more before you can ask questions that have simple answers. If that makes any sense.

For example, the literal answer to your question is most of them in the right alloy. Fact is, there aren't many metals that can't be forged, from uranium to titanium. What you're asking though is something different. Perhaps you want to know what a good knife steel is for forging. Or perhaps general smithing. Perhaps structural smithing.

In the first, there have to be hundreds of steel alloys you can forge blades from with a couple dozen popular ones. In the second, mild steel or wrought iron. In the third, it'll be specified by the engineer, architect, etc.

Also, successfully forging a blade is a ways down the road for the beginner, you need to learn to forge first, then learn tool steels and heat treating. Learning ABOUT these things is easy, really easy. Learning to DO them is a different matter and takes hands on practice.

Welcome aboard Juggalo, good to have ya.

Frosty

[Doug C]

Juggalo, Frosty is right. Be patient and learn the basics before you start making knives. If you learn the skills required beforehand your first knife will turn out better than you hoped. Join your local blacksmithing group:
KENTUCKY BLACKSMITHS' ASSOC KY.abana-chapter.com

[matt87]

Welcome, Juggalo. It's good that you have taken an interest in a productive activity, which will help you to learn valuable real-world skills, and one day might lead to a job. Blacksmithing encompasses very practical skills and techniques which will always be useful, especially when financial chickens come home to roost and people need to tighten their belts.

This website is probably the best single resource for metalsmithing on the internet. Furthermore it doesn't cost anything other than time to access and to learn very valuable information. It is provided so that everyone who is interested can learn about metalworking and contact other metalworkers wherever they are from, so long as they have an internet connection. There is a wealth of information here, much of it specially geared towards the beginner. As such I avoid asking a question unless I can't find the answer myself, as a matter of courtesy -- it might be free for me to access, but it costs others time and effort to answer a question, so if I expect to get an answer to my question without putting any effort in myself, that's just plain rude.

As Frosty says, there is a lot to learn before starting bladesmithing - it is a specialised sector of blacksmithing - just like farriery, architectural ironwork and sculptural ironwork. They all have at their core the same skill-set, i.e. manipulation of metals while in their plastic (heated) condition with the application of localised pressure. This is forging. It's like they say, you can't walk before you can run. Therefore practice of the basic forging techniques -- drawing down, cutting, fulling, punching, bending, upsetting -- is what you need first.

Considering your age there are several factors which you might have to deal with that we old fogies generally don't, such as a very small budget, no car, rapid and sporadic growth, parents, and perhaps legal concerns. None of these are necessarily insurmountable, as the number of younger smiths on this forum goes to show. There are several threads which address some of these issues, if not all.

Once again, welcome to the forum and the community, Juggalo. Feel free to ask for advice whenever you need it, but be prepared for some learning.

[ThomasPowers]

When I teach college students smithing they all want to make blades but as I tell them "*everything* you are doing making S hooks directly applies to blademaking" and far better to make you mistakes on "forgiving" mild steel than unforgiving blade steels.

So I would advise finding a steel place locally, (I get mine from a windmill repair company---about half the cost of buying it at the local lumber yard), and buy a stick of 1/4" square stock hot rolled mild/A36/structural (may be called any of those) and another of 3/8" sq stock to practice on. Also the dreaded RR spike can be good practice material thought they DON'T make good knives, but the size makes for a lot more work pounding.

When you have gone through that metal and you can hopefully forge a nice flat surface without a lot of hammer dings then pick up a piece of car coil spring and, if you can, have a friend run a cutting torch down one side giving you a bunch of good blade steel, (usually around 5160) to learn working higher carbon steels and heat treating on.

[rmcpb]

Welcome to IFI Juggalo. All the advice above is probably not what a 9th grader wanted to hear BUT its all good. If you want to be a bladesmith, really a specialist blacksmith, then you have to have the blacksmithing bit worked out otherwise, you will just turn out junk.

Now if you are into stock removal methods then you have to get the gear for grinding and polishing and then learn the heat treating bits only.

Either way its a LOT to learn.

Welcome to the obsession