Borntoolate

Having to put it all back is where I am now. Kind of a pain to move it each time. Especially as more pieces to move are added. Tho an easy umbrella doesn't add much. Actually left it out for the better part of a month early this year as we had extended drought. USed it near everyday.

Or part of my house, in my house... or worse. That is part of my problem with building an external stand alone stack.

Wow, thanks all so far. I was just checking in tonight and was happy with all the replies. Don't have time to assimilate the info with the pesky full time job followed up with the full time house. I'll get a few more mics as requested by Francis Trez Cole.

I live in southern Louisiana, Baton Rouge area. Need help/ideas/things to consider with building a smithy I can use year round. Here is my situation: I currently move my forge and blower to a slab outside the back of my woodshop. I have no roof over the slab. My anvil is inside the shop just near two large swinging doors that open outward. There is an inside pic below. You can see the swinging doors behind that open to theother pic. Problems. No Roof: Sunlight and Rain are a problem of course. And, summer in Baton Rouge is 95F+ (hot for forging) and sun until ~5-6pm (lotsa light, hard to see colors, sun beating down, sunburn). With the Back door open I get a lot of swirl of smoke into the shop etc. (Draft sucks, unpredictable, annoying). Rain most afternoons (when light is finally diminishing to be able to see the color). If I build a roof over the slab. This helps with Rain and sun but how do I manage the draft? What kind of smoke stack chimney do I need? I won't be in the shop with an external lean too (not exactly) But I will be close such that I think the draft might get confused... if that makes any sense. Plus, it would be nice to be able to leave the forge and blower in place. This is a hobby so I am not going to rebuild the whole shop. I am not filthy rich nor am I poor.

NOt much of anything around here. Granted I don't look too hard cuz I just don't have time to scrounge for stuff. And when I did look I found little. What there is out there is in antiquey stores. Mostly look in Ebay, make it myself, make do without or use modern day substitutes if possible. I hold to the thought that the Blacksmith made do with whatever he had. And if he has a Millermatic DVI Mig welder then he uses it. BUt if he doesn't have a power hammer then he makes do without. I bought my first and only anvil new from Kane and son. I like it very much but I don't like to talk about how much I paid for it. I built my gas forge from scraps and pipe from hardware stores etc. Don't use it much. I built my gas forge from scrap and used Miller and a portaband to assemble.

some 1 on 1 training from someone. Brian Brazeal or others....

If you have not made a second one I like the idea someone else said. Make another. Mostly so far I make everything different, or mostly so. A guy at work had a plant hanger that he wanted a second one of and he said he could not find another that was similar. I said bring it to me and I would see what I could do. I love a new challenge. I found that the challenge of fairly precisely trying to duplicate an item was quite fun. Just being creative and making stuff like you feel in the moment is cool. But trying to replicate an item without jigs and such was really fun and it pushed my skills a bit. I think trying to duplicate is a great opportunity for learning in more ways than you might imagine.. Try it This was also my first blacksmith profit. He gave me a $25 gift card to Lowes. I did it for fun but I never turn down cash

I have hammered a good bit of rebar just for practice and to make square rod to use for other stuff later on once I figured out what I wanted to make. I used it to learn on. Since it's free there is nothing to lose by hammerin away. And when you make something cool from it that others are amazed about you can say it was made from an old hunk of rusty rebar from "insert local whatever location". This gives the piece a bit of character and possibly local significance. It's a better story than I bought the square bar from Home Depot... I made this pot rack from rebar AND metal from some steel grating that I dissassembled.

Juris, Galvanized metal creates fumes when heated and this is poisonous to breathe. Don't do it. This includes galvanized piping that you may use to build your forge. This probably applies to Cadmium coating too. Some paints probably aren't good either. Why go straight to forge welding? There are a lot more skills to learn before needing to weld. Surf the net and youtube for videos and articles/free books. Learn to Taper, Draw out, Square, Octagon, make a point, Twists, Simple Handles and so forth. In other words practice some basic skills that you can then use to make many things. Make your own forge tools first off (tongs, rake etc...) Make some useful S-Hooks and give them away. Make some wall hanger hooks... Once you get a better feel for your set-up and learn more you'll be in a better place to expand to welding and all sorts of things. On-line there are a lot of videos. Off hand surf for Bill Epps (I like his tong video), Technicus Joe ( he has several videos and I like the music), Brian Brazeal (haven't seen but a couple videos but he has some step by step photos) and a whole host of others. Check out the links section of various blacksmithing association websites. Build a coal forge if you can. Ask for Coal for your birthday or Christmas. Keep truckin.

Mine is a brake drum forge using 1/4" plate for the table. The brake drum slides in place under the plate. The slides are angle from bed frames off the roadside. I need wheels cuz I don't have a permanent smithy with roof as yet so lawn mower wheels and other mower parts make me mobile. Had to stop at a few auto repair shops to get the drum. BUt this was on the way home from work so no biggy. here is a pic. I like this much more than the gas forge I built. Hotter, quieter, puts the heat where you want not everywhere. I do like the gas forge for heating larger items in order to straighten them. I used the hole cut out from the plate for the base of th fire pot. Drilled holes in it (1/2 and 3/8).

FOr me it seems that by adding fresh coal to the hot embers and running the blower a few minutes is producing a good bit of coke and not wasting coal. Once a few minutes are done I break the fire down and break up the coke and coal and seem to have twice as much stuff. I'll probably stick with this until something better comes along. THanks for the replies

I have been playing with some different Coal fire shutdown options. My intent is to try to get as much good coke out of the fire, leave the ash and clinker of course but also make some coke while at the same time cooling the fire with either wet or dry coal. Just some stuff I am trying. I used to just push the top off to the side and dig out some of the hot members and just let things go out. I have a brake drum forge by the way. With the drum forge I tend to get a lot of Coke and Ash aound the outer edge and bottom. Lately I still just scrape flat across the opening and maybe dig out a bit of the hot members but try not to disturb the hot mass much. Now I dump some green coal right onto the hot glowing coke mass. I have tried wet and dry coal. Now I may just let this go for a few minutes or I have also ran the blower for a minutes or so. Running the blower for just a short time generates copious amounts of green/yellow smoke that leads me to believe I am making a lot of coke fairly quickly. After a few minutes or so I break the fire down as usual and spread the coke/coal around the outside edge of the forge and try to roll out the larger chunks of fused coke from the outer edge of the fire pot. I break the large pieces up and try to leave most of the small bits, ash and clinker in the fire pot. The fire tends to start fire better and I have gotten a head start in purging all that noxious smoke out of the coal from the left over heat of the forge. The result seems to be an easier fire to start with a bit less smoke and a nice mound of coke/coal to pile around the fire. WHen I restart the fire I have lot of Coke and Coke coal mix. This seems to start better than just coke. I usually just hand pick through the ash, clinker and small bits of coke in the fire pot for a few minutes to preserve the most coke while getting rid of all the ash and clinker. I usually just push the ash across the 1/2" holes in the bottom and then dump that all from my home made pipe tuyere. I use a few small bits of wood from my woodshop (there is always plenty to be cut up) placed on junkmail ads with coal dust and I dowse this with charcoal starter fluid. I use a lot less paper that is usually suggested in what I have read and the starter fluid helps make stubborn Souther Louisiana humid paper burn while creating less ash in the pot. Some would say I was cheating with the starter fluid. I would say that "traditionally" I bet a smith would use whatever they have available and I have several bottles of starter fluid that I never use otherwise. Anyone have any advice or thoughts on how to do this better or just what works for them?

Ash is another choice for a handle material. Hickory is supposed to have some magical qualities that also help absorb impact and make it easy on the body and as stated before is the US standard. As a woodworker initially I learned that using a bandsaw to rough out the shape is very beneficial if you are going to add any shape to the handle. Make the handle longer than needed and cut away the waste for whatever shape you want and leave the ends square in order rest on the band saw table nice and flat. If the table is big enough. If not you can tape the waste back on adn this helps keep a more or less square stock. THis is also how to make Cabriole legs which is not that difficult. This is also useful in that you could make several handles ahead of time and then fit the hammer head later on. As mentioned before a spokeshave is both fun and a wonderful tool to learn in order to make a nice shape. On the other hand I watched Jerry just rasp out a shape pretty quick on a handle he did not like. I made several recently from Ash and am working to figure out what I like. Not sure yet but over time I will as I experiment. So, just try something and then try something else until you find your way. In some ways I think what you make yourself will somehow naturally be what you like. Mostly. And if not tweak or toss it as an experiment and learning. We learn by doing and making mistakes. Mistakes are the road to success as long as our body parts remain intact. Over time this will just get better and better. This is a great combination of woodworking, blacksmithing, personal creativity and preverence. truly a chance to personalize. I love it.

One other thought. Let's make this an ongoing post where people add pics of their recent projects. People can do it each week and it could be one place to go get all sorts of ideas for projects.

First Safety Wear Safety glasses! I will forge in shorts, flip flops and a holey old tee shirt or no shirt before forging without goggles... and have. I put out a post of a piece of slag that shot off the work piece and into my finger like a piece of shrapnel. Small but hot and metallic + sharp. Did I mention HOT! Not too bad in the finger but in the eye?? A month later I am still getting the last pieces out. You don't want that in your eye. Second Hey this stuff looks good. But I'm a newbie myself. I recall some of my first work. That would be trying to make something and ending up with a folded over mess. Then I just made stuff square. Then I made some tapers... etc. So keep going ehh?

I've been into woodworking for some time now. Recently now some metal work and blacksmithing. I have been wanting to combine the two. This is my first feeble attempt not counting things like hammer handles and the like. Though I have made some drawer pulls but those are quite traditional to be metal. A towel holder for next to the kitchen sink. The wood base is oak and I wanted to make it blackish like the metal. So the oak is ebonized (rusty water reacts with the tanin and makes it dark). It's not fancy but I spent so much time trying to figure out the "best" way to make it and just got tired of it and started. This is how it came out.

I think Ted T summed it well. Thanks for the help all!

I was working with a striker early this month. At one point a tiny piece of slag shot into my finger. Naturally it burned as it cooled. It hurt a little and of course I tried to dig out what I could and kept working. Well three weeks later it still feels like there is something in there. I have dug some tiny bits out 2 or three times now but it just swells back up and feels like there is still a splinter in there. I've gouged around with a needle and just can't seem to find it. It's not a big deal but does anyone have a secret to locating these little devils and getting them out for good? This is also in a spot where a hammer callous has developed. Has anyone else ran into this elusive slag projectile annoying sliver problem and has a solution short of gouging out the affected area?

Nice... Is that a Buck stove in the background?

"If ones words are not better than silence... Perhaps one should remain silent" Kwyjang Cain from Kung Fu. Prolly came from someone else

Doesn't need to correlate now. Fact is that the phrase is still used. 10 penny nail etc. Sounds like it came from blacksmithing even if it's the sales side of it. May be a bit of a stretch.... But I heard that the apprentices had to make nails at night to make their pay.

Stay with the numbers. The above is #6. Yes let's keep it blacksmithing. Keep em coming. Can we hit 50.

I made the pot rack and hooks for my daughter over the weekend-ish. It works and is made all of scrap. Just having started in January I am happy with it. The flat bars come from a metal walkway grating. I had to do something with the welded gaps created when I took it apart. But that all just added to the design and got incorporated into the style. Not even sure where the hook metal came from.... By the way... Hooks are fun. I did cheat with a few mig welded joints. BUt on that point... I believe that a traditional blacksmith used whatever resources or tools he had available. Well, I have a mig welder and so I use it.:P

interesting on the stainless. I forged a handle on some "baked potato cooker" Thingys. NOw they were only about 1/4" or slight more round bar. I squared tapered and put a handle on each end. This did not seem to be any different than the other steels I have used. Or at least not significantly so. Now I do know stainless has a higher strength at higher temperatures but even then it seems that forging temperature takes metal strength so low that it should be mostly irrelevant right?

Brian, Maybe some day the stuff will make itself. For now... I still have to think, move, heat and hold it pretty darn deliberately to make things work out. I do see where I hit things a lot easier and take more time to be accurate than when I started. My three pound hammer used to wear me out but now it feels about right. My lighter hammers are too much work! Back to the questions. IT is all the subtle stuff that makes the differnce perhaps. one or two good well placed hit vs several poorly place hits. Keeping minimal contact with the heat sucking anvil and hammer in order to preserve your heat. Heating fully without burning...