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I Forge Iron

Welcome New Blacksmiths Here Are A Few Suggestions


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Old Rascal
Welcome to the world of the serene and fulfilling craft of blacksmithing.
Where it is up you to purposefully position yourself to be prepared with the skills to be able to direct your efforts to be in harmony with natural elements of this earth.
 
You said: “I'm a newbie too Well, maybe I shouldn't say that as I'm 78 years old, but I'm new to smithing. I was able to buy some equipment some years back because I've always been interested in it, but didn't have a place to pursue it. Now I do and am rarin' to go.”
 
The Good News Is: You may be new at blacksmithing, but you are not new to living life and have gained the experience of solving problems of life that will support your progress as a blacksmith in a way that will surprise you.
 
I have assisted several men who are over 80 years old get started as a blacksmith. I have hacked away at this craft for over 60 years.
They questioned their ability, I did not.
I believe it is about attitude and interest that is backed by life experience.
I have seen many older people who had a genuine interest in blacksmithing excel because their life experience has taught them how to take one step at a time and to reason out how to solve problems.
 
My very best to you.
Ted Throckmorton
 
PS.
Everything that you ask about is contained somewhere in this site.
I feel it would be wisdom to plan on taking some time to start with (with a refreshing drink in hand) and study the content of this site.
 
You will become more independent with knowledge if you mine out the information for yourself for a while, then; discuss it in the chat room or in the forums for reasons of socializing, conformation, and tweaking.
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Welcome aboard you Old Rascal you, glad to have you. What Ted says is on the money. Another thing, being older we tend to look for the easier on old joints, etc. way to do things. smithing efficiency isn't nearly as much about strength as control, hitting IT where and how you want is far more important than hitting it HARD.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

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  • 1 year later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Just getting into this myself. I've wanted to learn how to smith since I saw a recreation blacksmith set-up back in 8th grade. I'm 37. I held off for so long because I thought it would require finding a master to apprentice myself too, and having the time to dedicate to it without wasting said master's time. My wife got me a day of lessons with a local smith for our anniversary, and I loved it. I didn't realize it was something you could just start doing. I've spent my time since those lessons picking up some books and reading them, and I got myself a decent hammer and have been just hammering nails and working on hammer control. I just joined my local guild, and I'm planning to attend my first meeting this weekend.

 

I'm currently looking to get myself set up with a work area, so I'm eyeing anvils and forges and such. Nothing promising on craigslist, but I've found a few possible leads online. I'm in the Richmond, VA area, I know there are some good smiths here I plan to get to know, but does anyone know a good place or good quality to pick up a starter anvil? I've seen lost of encouraging posts about some great vintage anvil finds here, and I've got feelers in those directions as well, but is there any brand of new anvil that might be recommended to start with?

 

Thanks for any help, I'm looking forward to learning and becoming proficient, and I'm well aware and ready for it to be a long road ahead.

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Welcome aboard, glad to have you. Be patient looking for tools and equipment and you'll do better. Fortunately you live in country with a decent amount of smithing tools, you aught to try finding anything in Alaska. It's even better you're just building a fire and hitting steel, you could look for the rest of your life for a perfect set up and have "still looking" carved in your head stone.

 

Search IFI for the TPAAT it's a well proven method of finding tools and equipment even though it has anvil in it's name. You basically tell every person you meet what you're looking for, every body. Another thing that will really help is keeping an open mind, there are many ways to make a forging fire, coal or charcoal are only two fuels, there are many. Believe it or not dry corn is a darned good smithing fuel as is camel dung.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

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Oh, I can be fairly patient, was just curious if there were any reason not to look at buying new for an anvil vs. hunting one down. TPAAT already starting working for me before I even knew the term! One of my wife's coworkers told her the other day that her dad has an unused anvil just sitting out in the barn. I'm waiting to hear for more info on that, so that's already a good start, and I've found loads of good advice here on putting together a forge that will work in my location.

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  • 3 months later...

Thanks for posting that for us newbies. Your right I would rather learn it the right way than have to unlearn it later. Next search will be on bad forge habits. I have a fear of pulling hot iron out of forge and hitting a bystander with it. I work alone but never know when some youngster might be sneaking up on Gampa. I try to remind myself to look before I move. I would be devastated if I hurt someone like that. I should probably put up some fencing and gates around carport. I also catch myself staring into the coal forge too often. Can't be good for the eyes. This is a great site I love it. I get lost for hours in here. Many thanks to all who make this possible.

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A *safe* distance on many things is to outstretch your arm, have them outstretch their arm, and keep 18 inches between the fingertips. At that distance you can not get to them with hot metal, a chain saw, etc. Survey flagging can act as an inexpensive barrier if a visual reminder is needed. It is different and draws attention. Nothing beats telling everyone every time about not approaching the work zone until they are ask to approach. You MUST not only tell but also invite them into the zone when you are able to control the zone.  They will be willing to wait for a short time while you tidy things up and provide a place for them to stand.

 

Look for some shade #3 welding glasses. It will protect your eyes from the IR and UV and still let you see what your doing.  Make it a habit NOT to stare into the fire, but to look around and enjoy the world. You can  develop a sense for how long it takes to heat up a piece of metal if you pay attention to what your doing. In another field of work I could constantly hit a 30 second or 45 second process time within a second or two without looking at a clock.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

While reading all the posts here I have learned something about myself. I have actually already begun listening to your advise. In the past, I have learned by the trial by error method and I will say, there have been a lot of errors. I enjoyed reading the original post (and all the rest) and thank you for spending the time it took to compose it.

 

I am now 47 years old and find that I have enjoyed what I do for the simple fact that I feel good creating things with my hands. Having said that, I am looking to create my "retirement" career and I think I have found the perfect marriage of all my hobbies. I can forge my own blades, make my own handles and craft my own sheaths for them.

 

I look forward to learning this craft with a less bullheaded perspective from all of you who share on this forum!

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Being a trial and error student myself I understand how much easier and faster it is to learn from other folk's experience. Not that learning from others prevents mistakes it just makes them less hassle to learn from. Blacksmithing is as much of a trial and error craft as there is and failure analysis is a necessary learned skill.

 

There is a soul deep satisfaction to taking a few of mankind's oldest tools fire and something to hit with and bending iron and steel to our will. Steel is what modern human civilization is built on, if a thing isn't steel it was made by something that is steel. The symbol of strength and durability that any human knows instantly and we get to make it dance to our tune with a fire and hammers.

 

Oh, and better still sometimes, people WANT to give us money to play with fire and hit things. SWEEEET!

 

Sometimes just thinking about it makes me want to break out laughing. Sound familiar? 

 

Frosty The Lucky.

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