BTNZ

Hi folks, keen for any constructive feedback on what is pretty much my first blacksmithing project. After some advice on here, erred away from Tongs as a first project and went for a leaf instead, everything was going pretty well until late on when I messed around with my air feed for a bit too long and burnt some of my leaf off. My hammers aren't right but they are what I have; a 2lb mini sledge hammer I guess you would call it and a decent size ball peen hammer. No photo of it sorry but mid way through the project I took to my forge with the angle grinder cutting a notch out of one side to allow work pieces to be situated across the fire pot instead of needing to be down into it (effectively increasing the size of the heat zone). First Blacksmithing project; Video Sorry there is no audio because the kids had a lot to say in the background

A shop vac is WAY WAY too much air, it'd be a pain trying to get enough diverted to not be a fuel hog. I use an old shop vac to burn stumps in short order. Frosty The Lucky. So it would appear... my air inlet is via a 20mm tee in the base, air from the side and the vetical section as a trap for fines the drop down. Even on low speed i ended up opening the bottom of the tee to dump airflow and calm down the fires of hell.

My location is Taupo, New Zealand. My Blower was a shop vac with a dimmer speed control but it seems it blew too much air, will make do for now and keep an eye out for cheap air matress inflator or similar. My coal turned out to be charcoal because thats all I could get at the time. Seems now I can get coal so will do when in Town tomorrow. Nice pointers on the visegrips and long stock, this will come in handy. Will have to start collecting old chisels and punches etc. They make it look so easy onthe videos but I can see there is a long road ahead. Thanks Bruce

Thanks guys. Will have to get some more coal and have another go.

Hi Guys. Like so many after a few too many Youtube videos I decided that I wanted to try blacksmithing. Today I built my forge (similar to a brake drum style) and rushed into it with a few hammers, an anvil (that I believe may be cast Iron ) and only waterpump pliers as tongs hoping boldly to make my first 'proper' tongs. After a while of frustration and then the end pretty much burning off the 16mm square stock I decided that maybe some more tools and some advice were in order. What is your advice for the minimum tools required for a newbie starting out? ( I plan to start out making fireplace tongs and pokers and maybe move on to blades and such) Regards Bruce