Donaven

So most blogs and forums say "just go down to the local junk yard". The problem for me is that I am living in Germany and my German is not the best. Does anyone know where near Kaiseralautern I can find cheap steel. If not does anyone know what the German words for scrapyards, metal dealers, etc are?

Thanks for the info! Cannot wait to get the forge up and running!

Ok so my wife is having the rotors changed on her suv and I thought, "What a great time to build a forge!" I have one question though... All the videos/pics I have seen of brake forges have used rusted drums/rotors and my wife's rotors seem to have a shiny yellowish coating on them. Is there something that needs to be done to prepare newer rotors before I use them? Thanks in advance for the help.

We wouldn't DARE say something mean about a firend's sister. What kind of men do you think we are.. *snark, snark* ;P

Here is a neat little java program to test just how accurately you can judge distances and angles. http://woodgears.ca/eyeball/

Thanks for the info. Google books has a good section on the book online and it seems very useful. I will most certainly pick up a copy myself.

First off thank you all for the overwhelmingly warm welcome. Frosty-- I am looking at late SCA time period, around 1600s. I presume that as time went on smithing techniques and tools got better and therefore easier. Thomas-- I am about 6 hours from Müchen and about 3 from Bad Windsheim. It seems that in every group of artisans you will find at least one SCAdian. Diver-- I know a few Swedish smith, but none in my Germany. One of the draws of the forum was the ability to collaborate with other people in a location-less environment. But of course I would be happy to meet if possible. The internet is a poor substitute for person to person contact. Everyone-- I have a question... I own absolutely no smiting apparatus and am no-joke-broke. What is the minimal requirements to actually be able to make something neat? I already own a few books (On Divers Arts by Theophilus, and The Complete Metalsmith by Tim McCreight) What else would you recommend?

Hello All, Just thought I would drop a line to introduce myself to all of you. I am absolutely new to smithing and looking for some resources to get started. As a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, I am mostly interested in ancient and historic smithing methods. Well that about sums up myself as a blacksmith. If you want to know anymore or have any good resources for me hit me up.