Bare minimum

[Rusty]

What is the bare minimum for a amateur forge in regards to tools and equipment?

[Dave Shepard]

Hammer, tongs, ASO (anvile shaped object) fire. A friend of mine has seen people in africa beating out iron with two rocks. You don't have to have very much to get started, but once you get better at blacksmithing, you will want different hammers and tongs and punches etc. for different jobs. With a little creativity you can get into blacksmithing without spending a ton of money.


Dave

[Mr Smith]

A forge, a hammer, and something to pound on, oh and your workpiece.

Or, a forge/fire, and a pair of adjustable pliers, if you're working with thin rod.

All depends on what you want to make. Tell us where you're from, and I'm sure we can find a group in your area!

[Rusty]

I'm currently in central NJ, but at the end of the summer I'll be moving up to Worcester, MA. I'm mostly interested in making decorative home pieces- candlestick holders, coat hangers, hat hooks, etc- and knives.

[Joseff]

A good pair of vice-grips makes a decent set of tongs for smaller work. I found them useful when making knives.
Joseff

[Nick]

The bare minimum is hammer, tongs, anvil shaped object, bucket for quenching, and a simple forge.

But I will submit a more practical minimum as also including a hacksaw to cut material to length and a file to clean burs or for shaping.

[Mr Smith]

It all depends on your definition of "bare minimum". I've bent up metal around a campfire using nothing more than a length of pipe.

For "useful" smithing, I would say something to pound on, something to pound with, fire and metal. If you're using a long enough piece of metal, you can hang on to the cool end rather than use tongs.

[evfreek]

My minimum setup when I first started was a lump of homemade refractory from garden clay, a concrete block, a ball pien hammer, vice grips, and a propane torch held between my legs. Believe it or not, this worked for making custom bike tools. Now, I do not cycle, but I still do blacksmithing.

And, I have replaced all these tools, sometimes with more than one iteration. Anyway, Thomas Powers (my hero) once said that it was the more serious beginners who held on to his loaner anvil for the least time.

[ThomasPowers]

I once built a "beginner's kit" for under $25 using a 1/4" drill as the most esoteric piece of equipment in it's construction:

Forge: scrounged brakedrum; set into a metal frame from a barstool: pipe fittings from fleamarket for tuyere $3

Blower: old small handyvac like thing $3 fleamarket---it had no bag but the round pipe was there to fasten to a chunk of radiator hose ( $1 fleamarket) going to the forge: speed control was a ceiling fan control for $3 at the fleamarket.

Anvil: broken knuckle off a RR car coupler found in a ditch alongside an abandoned RR track it weighed about 50# and had a flatside and a curved side and was free.

Hammers: $3, $5 at fleamarket for a ballpein and crosspein hammer
Tongs: pliers and visegrips $1, $2 at the fleamarket.

No welder was used; just the drill and some misc bolts from fleamarket for $2 (other tools included a screwdriver and a hacksaw.

I made a sheetmetal fence to sit inside the brakedrum with a gap on one side and a mousehole on the other side to stick long pieces through---used this forge to weld up billets for knives for a while.

Your first project can be a set of tongs so you could get by without the pliers and visegrips and bring the price down to about $20

[ThomasPowers]

Another minimum set up is to build a one firebrick forge and use a cheap propane torch to run it. Cost 1 soft firebrick, cheap propane torch.

This is best for small stuff and so a chunk of RR rail will work for an anvil and a pair of pliers for tongs.