ganman

Well i just started blacksmithing, its allways been something ive wanted to do now i got the time and brains with a hint of brawns to do it built my first forge stealing various ideas from others and generaly just improvising something workable. I got no pics but a description 2 metals parts that form the inside rim of a wheel, stacked on each other to get the depth thats ive read needs to be 7 inch for charcoal. These are placed on 2 bricks with in between these 2 bricks has a pipe that leads to my hair dryer. The intire stucture is sorounded by bricks in a kinda pyramid for stability. well on round 1 this setup kinda failed, not eneugh air so i just moved the dryer to ontop of it blowing down into the charcoal and that seemed to work half decently. First try at making something i had a piece of rusted steel a bit thicker then a piece of rebar and abour 1 1/2 feet long. managed to smash into a bottle opener that works better then the store bought QUESTION TIME! :! !! 1) When are you supposed to quench your piece? Also whats the procedure to make whatever your making stronger like repeat heat quench... or something like that? 2) I read that it looses its magnetism when its ready to whack, so i had a magnet, piece was not glowing or anything but lost its magnetism. and it was fairly shape able, (it was strong stuf to start with too btw) But must i wait till it glows red or is it preferable or no magnetism, go ahead and whack? 3) I was using a store bought charcoal royal oak i think its called, canadian tire blue bag. It sparks alot, any way to reduce this? 4) Whats the best way to recude your charcoal use but keep the heat as high as possible? 5) Do you always run the blower on and just crank it to high for the extra push or turn it off when your metal is out of the forge& 6) I got hit by a spark caused a blister bump thing, pop or let it be? 7) My long term blacksmithing goal is to make a suit of chainmale armor. any suggestion to information bought making one of these? 8) how do you weld 2 piece of metal together especially wire steel or iron. 9) Railroad nails(not the word but i forget what it is) good for making stuf? 10) whats the general guidlines to picking scrap steel and knowing if its safe to use or not (chemicals) 11) do car junkyards provide good scrape steel to use? if yes whats the best parts 12) Best source of steel overall? 13) How reusable is the remaining bits of charcoal after a burn? 14) when im done should i spray water all over my forge or is there a super awesome special technique that makes relighting easyer. 15) Anyone feel like shipping to Canada a pair of good pliers 16) Any suggestions for a next project? exempt is the pair of pliers of above that i hope someone ships 17) Wheres the hottest part of a forge, in the coals? ontop? ...? 18) how long do you usualy get to work with the steel before you got to reheat? 19) how do you tell difference between iron and steel) 20) can you weld the above metals into 1 bar? 21) temperature that glass melts? 22) any trinkets that are good to sell that a blacksmith can make? Thanks all Lowing the hobby so far.