Danz409

realy? i guss that would explane a good amount of it... i tryed 1/2 inch round stock

nah, im acculy kinda satisfied with what it has now. its round and grip is pritty decent

well, i tryed this first thing today and i can say... oh .... why... sounds easy... the metal just gives me the finger and bends every way possable and refuses to fatten up... i clearly see why its called upsetting.

wow thats very nice, hope my second knife looks as sexy!

as of today, my tools are far more inpressive. when i posted this. the problems i was havieng is clear... the only 2 hammers i had was the 2 on the far right in the photo and the only tongs i had was the crappy channel locks i already returned, would of adjusted them. but they dont have the nut most have to adjust... it was a rivit... anyway my needless to say with the new additions to my tool collection simple tasks are becomeing far more easyer!

thanks kashmire, i see angle grinders for mega-cheap on harbor freaight i might pick one up with some disks/ sanding pads. im also going to need a vise eventuly too. so i might head to some flea markets tommarow to look around and try to find a vise so i can do twists in the handles an such.

thanks! pritty good from an old dish-network satilite dish, break rotor and some plumbing parts :D

tools that could of been usefull for this would of been a much better belt sander. the one i used had a metal backing on it and restriced what parts i can sand.

ok, i may have found a cheap salutoin for this... im acculy supprised at how cheap.. does anybody have any expernace with this sander?

Harbor Freight $40 sander.

if so. please fill me in on the details. i wouldnt mind getting this if its not a pile-o-scrap

if your just starting out, (depending on budget) there is alternatives
could go to Harbor Freight if there is one around your area and buy this HF Anvil

or take a trip to your local scrap yard and get a peace of steel to beat on if your unshure if you plan to do much with this craft. i payed $14 for my 31 pund squire chunk and its doing allright

thread already started. srry for posting this... was unaware.. i acculy tryed looking for something like this but couldnt find. if any admin sees this please remove this thread. unessasary now.

orignal thread = here

woops!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i started a thread trying to get a list of supplyers... guss thats un-needed now. link is here. if any admins see this message please dealte it

update on the progress:
melted blower: added 6 inches of pipe and its icey cold where my blower is now. so no worries about that anymore

for tongs: I cant make them without them, so i picked up a pair of larger size pliers at harbor freaght for $3, and suppriseingly despite the "made in china" slaped on the side. they work rather well

fuel: signing up with the local blacksmithing group, " SOFA "
and they sell coal to mimbers for $10 for 50 punds. clamed to be realy good for smthing. ill be going to the next meeting to enjoy myself and pick some up. untell then i found my local wally-world wana be store (mijer) had some hardwood lump charcoal. just finished burning my briquets so ill get to play with this on my next forgeing burn.

hammer time!: ok so i discoverd that yes. the hammers i was useing was FAR underweaght for this project. i also got a pair of hammers a 2 punder and a 2.5 punder from harbor freaght too. im favering the 2.5 this thing make metal move reguardless if it wants to or not! i love it! new hammer flattend the blade MUCH flatter and was able to fix ALOT of the mess i had on it seems like i have a decent shop now

thank you everyone for all the advice! extreamly helpfull group here at IFI!

Im basicly posting this to show my first knife / first peace other then my fire poker. that if made with my new hobby. made from a simple railroad spike. theres clearly better knives out there. but as a first time smithing peace i don't thank its all that bad. if you see any work that can be done that can inprove this. or something thats just not right about it. please feel free to post it. i could use all the education i can get. this was made with no training from an outside sorce other then what i can gather from watching a few youtube videos and hanging out here at IFI ^^.

look forward to doing more projects!

tools that could of been usefull for this would of been a much better belt sander. the one i used had a metal backing on it and restriced what parts i can sand.

an anvil would of helped for the curves on this thing. i dont have any heavy peaces of metal that even resemble a horn. closest i have is a segment of track

if your looking for something for a blacksmithing workshop in the middle of nowhere. how about a hybrid forge? a forge thats also a boiler that runs a turbine, and charges batteries wich run low wattage lights and have a DC motor on your blower, dosnt sound too hard to do

wow thanks! that does seem like a basic step. just wasnt shure how the process happend but got a good idea now. ill have to give this a try next time i fire up the forge

sounds like a weard questoin but not realy shure of any other way of describeing. in the image example A is easly accomplished by streatching it out a basic process that can be easly accomplished. but im still new at this and was wondering if the oppasite of that can be done. takeing a peace of stock and makeing it thicker/chunkyer to use or work with it. (example would be B on the image). im unaware of any process that could accomplish this with little tools. only idea i can thank of is flateinig out even more and doing a folding/welding

bump ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

once i get some skills something i would makeing is a Kunai.
if your wondering what the h** is a Kunai..



its a japanese throwing weapon. well ballanced so is going to take alot of skill.
but this is something at the top of my want to make list
if anybody has any suggestions on what i should use to attempt this or if you konw of any already made BPs that would help with this please let me know. i still got lots of practiceing to get in befor even considering this project. still fairly new at this.

I'm starting this thread to help anybody thats just picking this hobby up to easly find a sorce/lead on there fuel. rather it be coal/charcoal or even wood
i know there is sevral differant palces but id like any help of people posting super cheap or super easy to obtain sorces of fuel in there area
prefably in this format

Fule type:
location: city-state / store name
amount:
price:
notes: if any

___________________________________________________________________
sorces that i can find that would be available in most states but unforitly at a price

fule type: Frontier, Lump hardwood charcoal
locatoin: Natanal, Ace hardware / (if a mijer is avialble in your area they sell 10 pund bags)
Amount: 10-20 pounds
Price: $7.50-$12
notes: any charcoal burns but word from pros. Lump, hardwood is the way to go to get better heat and quicker heat-ups, also burns cleaner and has less ash. contains no fillers like most briquetts

supprised this isnt stickied yet. but heres mine.


Brand: junkyard scrap find (45 cents a pound. higher price yard unforitly)
Weight 31 punds. (lightweaght, very portable)
Condition SHINEY!
Price paid $13.95 2009

just got back from messing around with the forge a bit ore.. to add to the crappy channel locks that broke. My blower melted off... O.o

so i need to get a peace of extended pipe for that also

got about half way thu makeing a decent fire poker

not exactly if these are new or old. found them laying on the ground along a older set of what looked to be rarely used tracks. some parts look like it would cause de-railment
and iv even found one thats rusted so bad the top is missing
i dont thank these are the newer ones

and yea. iv noticed some problems with the charcoal im useing
A. throws ALOT of sparks
B. burns fairly quickly
C. not hot enugh to get the metal past the bright orange stage
D. produces ALOT of ash. find myself haveing to shake my grile in my firepot to unclog it

you can get lump charcoal pretty inexpensively at GFS,

where/what is GFS iv never heard of them
i live in the cincinnati area so if there around ill keep an eye out for a sale
if not. ill just keep on my search for coal

my rotor is acculy mounted in a dish. its about 4 inches deeper then it looks ^^;.

also just got done doing my second forgeing process. got a good ways thu befor haveing to quit

lack of tools realy kicked me in the but. i just went to the store today and got some channel locks and vise grips, the vise grips work great on the blade end but when i need to hold the handle side of my project (wider bar/sqire) type metal the locks did great for the first 30 min into my project. and now they keep sliping and nothing more dangerus then a peace of hot metal flying in any random direction... cheap POS's getting retured first thing tommarow for a better pair. what i realy need is a pair of tongs with a decent reach. keep getting cooked trying to retreve my peace of metal from the forge

heres a look of what it looks like so far. im not shure if your suppose to spend a lot of time to get it to look like that. but it took me about an hour and a half - 2 hours to get that far

well. this hobbie has already got me hooked. im simply unable to keep moveing all my stuff in and out of my room and hideing my steel and anvils out of sight so they wont magicly disapear overnight so i got permsion form my grandfather to setup in a storage area he had for simi weather protectoin.
its an allright little area. has a roof and 1 wall at least so im protected from rain at least. ill probably put chainlink fince up around my stuff to keep it safe later and probably move some of those doors to make some makeshift walls dureing the winter months
here is a couple of pics of it so far. still have lots of work to do to it tho.
still have a decent size list for tools too

any comments on inproveing this thing (on the cheap) i realy cant dump too much into this hobby, are more then welcome!