how did you get started smithing?

[Jmercier]

I've always been enamored with blacksmithing, several years ago I got talking with the fellow demonstrating at the King Richard's ren faire near me, and he said to just come in some sort of costume, pay for my ticket to the faire and I could spend all day with him learning whenever I wanted. I didnt have any costume at that time other than a suit of chain mail I had made, so i strapped on my kilt and a baggy shirt, and started going to the faire to learn to smith. 25$ to enter the faire day after day may have seemed like a lot, but it was literally nothing for a day's worth of blacksmithing lessons.

I learned to forge wearing a kilt, and sometimes still do so today =P Hey kilts are comfortable !

[pete46]

ALEX BEALER; [YES OFFICER THAT'S HIM ]
READ HIS BOOK,10yrs & A WHOLE LIBARY LATER .I'M STILL HOOKED!

[Sandalphon]

Grew up smithing my own tools and farrier work around the kibbutz i grew up on

[Frosty]

Originally Posted by Johannes

and have recently bought an 100 y old 350kg anvil for the new shop.

A 350kg anvil? Have you posted a picture I missed? If not what's wrong with you Buddy?

Okay, I opened my mouth so I'll propogate my tale, though I believe this thread has been done already. Hasn't it?

I grew up in Father's metalspinning shop and had little choice about helping out in my spare time. When I say grew up in it I mean precisely that. Some of my earliest memories are of sitting on the ways of his spinning lathe playing race car with the tale stock wheel.

Well, having spent so many hours doing brutally physical, dangerous but precise work I most certainly didn't want to spin for fun. Playing with fire and hitting things by eye rather than micrometer was a lot more fun and relaxing.

Dad on the other hand discouraged smithing as a dead craft and I never really convinced him I did it for fun not profit.

Another benefit to smithing was being able to play with fire. We lived in S. Cal. where kids are NOT allowed to play with fire, however if you're "blacksmithing" they cut you some slack.

So, I've been doing it since I was maybe 10 as a hobby, teaching myself because Dad wouldn't help in any significant way. Mother wouldn't let him forbid it, it kept me out of her kitchen.

Then sometime in the late 70's or early 80's I discovered Bealer's "Art of Blacksmithing" in a local book store. They'd gotten a dozen copies by mistake and they were on the bargain table for really cheap. I picked up a copy and after thinking about it went back the next day to pick up a couple more but they were all gone. All 12 gone in two days. The manager of the book store still couldn't be convinced to stock smithing books because nobody was interested! EEDEEOT!

Well, "Art" really opened my eyes, I learned why I couldn't do some things, how to do others, what to call some of the weird tools and maybe most importantly that Bealer was dead wrong, some of the things he said couldn't be done were easy for me.

Soon I started finding other books and when the internet went public in 91' I discovered a vigorous smithing community online who gladly and with great tolerance pushed my education into warp speed.

Frosty

[Mende]

Originally Posted by dablacksmith

It started for me from reading the lord of the rings and wondering how they welded in midevil times... then the metalshop teacher let me play in the propane forge( I made knives and swords in highschool!) but I reall got the bug when i went to a mountian man rondesvous and saw a blacksmith working.... watched him for hours! then went home and started working... 25+ years later and ime still going strong...

This is funny!. .To read LotR and only get intrigued by welding :P. .Too bad there are classes for dragonriding and magic and arcane cures and necromancy ..I'd sure sing up!

[Mende]

Anyways .. .Altho I'm not a Blacksmith ..and can barely be called an amateur compared 2 most of u ppl. ...I started about 2 yrs back ..when I decided I could probly forge knives with just hot coals left over from a bonfire and a simple hammer and a RR track section.
I started collecting tools and stuff and finally managed to build a good enough brick and earth forge and found a 150 kg anvil hiding in a nearby mountain village.
Never could find the time 2 forge a lot tho ..been busy with getting into college and such . .and now I'm leavin for London ..so maybe during summer breaks. .

[divermike]

I had done some smithing in high school, but then 25 years of life got in the way. So one day I'm reading a book called The skystone, about a roman times smith trying to figure out how to get a meteorite hot enough to work it, because his granddad had made a dagger of one, and it hit me, this is what I want to do! The horseclans novels may have contributed, Wolf & Iron also was one I read during that time, all these got my juices flowing. Now 3 years later, after wasting a year on my own, I'm getting to know which end of the hammer works best on the hot yellow stuff.

[psilogen]

I read that book recently, it was great. I got a little excited any time he started talking about smithing when I could predict where he'd go next in the conversation.

I started working at a historic site because I didn't want to go to college and I had some connections, and there I started migrating more towards the shops area than the marching field. I've made a couple nail headers, a tomahawk, hundreds of nails, and plenty of s-hooks, among other things. It was a little tough working with 1820s tools, and I never did learn drop-tong welds or much heat treating, but it was a good start. Now I'm going back to school and hopefully I can come out with enough education to get a job where I can afford a house far away from homeowners' associations and other weaklings, so I can build a shop in the back yard.

[inazuma_x]

Since a very young age I've felt that I was born too late...though the fact I am a type 1 Diabetic (from the age of 8) means I probably wouldn't have lasted too long in days of yore...but regardless i've always been fascinated with ancient times and have endeavored to discover as much as I can about them. perhaps it is my desire to find a simpler life...a more wholesome life...a life that doesnt so much rely upon the toils of others to scratch my existence out of the soil...to that end blacksmithing has always held a special place in my heart...from my artistic (sculpture) driven childhood i also developed a love of creating things with my hands...making my every fantasy seemingly come alive...or atleast into the real world

i didnt actually get started blacksmithing until about 4yrs ago when i found a local smith (Alan Ball) who held introductory blacksmithing courses near-ish to my home...there i found what i truly loved about it...the seemingly magical experience of turning unyielding steel into basically what ever you desire...be it a simple hook or scribe...or an ornate piece of furniture unlike anything that can be had in a store or unlike anything the world has seen before...for me it is a truly magical thing...and that is what drew me to it...and that is what keeps me there...

[inazuma_x]

Originally Posted by divermike

I had done some smithing in high school, but then 25 years of life got in the way. So one day I'm reading a book called The skystone, about a roman times smith trying to figure out how to get a meteorite hot enough to work it, because his granddad had made a dagger of one, and it hit me, this is what I want to do! The horseclans novels may have contributed, Wolf & Iron also was one I read during that time, all these got my juices flowing. Now 3 years later, after wasting a year on my own, I'm getting to know which end of the hammer works best on the hot yellow stuff.

I liked the skystone though i found it increasingly difficult to suspend disbelief when reading his subsequent works in the Camulod Chronicles...