wannaforge

Tim, its a nice thing your doing. I think everyone here thinks it nice, however you will find out as you get older(not condesending) that the world is ruled by law, and lawyers and naysayers. I think everyone here just wants you to watch your back and stay safe and outta trouble. Mr. Steve Sells post kinda points that out. Be careful okay amigo, it's nice to see teenagers that care about others as you do.

nice skinner, wish I had one. keep going

How far are you from sacramento? There is a guy in Loomis that puts on classes in the fall. I live about 4 hours away and he is the closest teacher. Good guy and wonderful teacher. Google Mclellan blacksmithing, He has two more classes after this weekend, and then he is off and running doing shows and working. The classes are reasonable cost wise, and he makes room for newbs no matter where the rest of the class is. Lots of guys on this forum will network for you, I haven't actually set up a work place yet, have some projects to finish for the wife, but a guy in Oregon is looking for anvils for me. Good luck and stay safe.

bummer, really enjoyed the pattern though. are you doing another like that? would love to see your pics of another try. good luck and I hope you got that imp of flaws.

Hey there wannaforge, I used to run machine guns up to Hawthorne for the High Desert Special Ops Center . They provided foreign weapons training to the Marine Corps at their facility there. I liked Hawthorne, but it is a bit removed for me,at least where I am now I can be in Las Vegas in an hour. Single guys like me need conveniences like that = ) I never did make it into the ordnance museum, as they were always closed when I could go. I would love to have some of the surplus practice bombs that they have up there for yard art. Besides solar, I am surprised I don't see more windmills here in NV.

awesome thread, thinking i will have to use charcoal to get started, keeping my overall cost down. lots of great ideas here, gonna try and keep it simple stupid(KISS) thanks guys for the advice and ideas. great thread.

For the floor in my smithy I used railroad tie plates flipped upside down. Just raked the big rocks out, and laid them down. Tossed some sand over them, and swept it in with a broom.

Im reading the knife shop for 50 dollars, and he talks about that technique. Sounds hard, but maybe worthwhile.

Hey Don, love reading your posts and watching your progress and it is very educational. Hope to have a forge setup by spring, and its posts (threads) like this that I can read over and over. Thanks for bringing us along on your journey, and for greenhorns like me its invaluable.

cool blade, would love to see how the tomahawk turns out.

Thanks Fe, funny thing I grew up in Tonopah, but never heard about the forging get togethers. Cool info thanks guys.

No, sacramento california. Sorry for the confusion.

Thanks for the comments and advice, it is sound, plan on taking it to heart. The class I'm taking is at Mclellan Blacksmith in Sacramento. Have exchanged emails with the guy and he gave me basically the same advice as I have gotten from you all so far. I probably sound like a 13 year old on his first fishing trip, but can't help it. Fe-wood I am about two hours south of reno, and would like to find out more about your friends open forge, however wednesday nights is kinda rough. But if you think about it, and he is okay with it I would like to contact him... only person I have heard from nevada so far. Thanks.

Zeke

Hi there, found this site while browsing around today. I am taking some classes down in Sacramento this month, to learn the basics and see if this is what I really want to do. I am so excited!!!!! My main interest is knives and axes. I don't have a shop, nor a forge, anvil etc... so I am so darn green it hurts to look. HA Really am inspired by the pics I've seen so far, and hope to put some of my own on some day. Look foward to your comments, advice and even critism. See you.


Zeke

My first post on here. Love the micarta handle!!! The blade is nice also, just for giggles I think the digi-cam is the Army's pattern. Beautiful Knife.