Joel OF

Cheers for the reply. I'm like a kid in a sweet shop at scrap yards & like you I do get a rush of ideas according to what I see, but I was just wondering if there's typical scrap objects for repurposing projects? Like how everyone knows brake drums make good firepots and all breakers yards are going to have brake drums, is there a common knowledge that (off the top of my head) metal dustbin lids make good lampshades for example?

Hi folks, I'm looking for some ideas, can anyone suggest scrap/waste objects that can be repurposed into useful and aesthetically interesting household objects like lamp shades, bowls, shelves etc etc etc. I love the idea that junk can be given a second lease of life with a bit of care and inginuity. At first I'd just make things for myself but if I got good I'd like to sell pieces or maybe give some bits are birthday/Christmas presents. I don't have to look any further than my brake disc forge to see that junk has a second use. My tastes are quite "raw" and "industrial" and I'd like the things I make to reflect that whether it be for me or a gift. (E.g I made my coffee table out of a pallet and my CD boxes are old oil cans with one side cut off. Those are very basic examples without any forging involved but you get the idea). I'd like to make things where you can see what the junk "ingredients" are as that's the charm of it and harnessing the innate qualities of the junk to work for the the item you want to turn it into is half the point, so there's no reason to hide that. I would like forging to be a part of this process so it's a combination of "prefab junk" and wrought iron, E.g making some legs for a brake drum to turn it into a lamp shade. That's a really rubbish idea but you get my drift. Any ideas would be really appreciated! Cheers

You'll know more about apprenticeships than me but from the little amount of research I've done into them they're not easy to come by and if you find someone who is willing to take you on, it might be making things you're not interested in. Consider things like how much you'd get paid, travel costs, rent etc. (Your parents might say to you what they said to me - if you're in education we'll help you out, but if your working then you're paying your way). I don't think apprentices get paid much/aren't always full time apprentices so once you factor in fuel and the like it might not be financially viable. I'm not trying to put you off, I'm just highlighting some points to consider. Uni isn't like school at all regardless of subject. I was as if not more head strong than you when I was your age, I knew exactly what I did (and didn't want), 10 years later I wish I did a few things differently. Your tastes and interests WILL change over the years and the things you think aren't worth the paper their written on now might be valuable to you in the future.

P.S look a couple threads down the UK page for a thread about apprenticeships started by "Basher". I don't know him but I know he's a bladesmith in north Kent.

Don't know about the apprenticeships I'm afraid but I think Plumpton College do a blacksmithing degree & I think I remember seeing Hadlow college do some sort of course. Also I think Canterbury College now do a blacksmithing HND but I think that's at their campus near Margate. Appease your folks with some "Higher Education" whilst doing the subject you like?

That looks exactly like my anvil in shape and size, I would say mine is on the medium to medium-small side. I got mine from a scrap yard, before I took it away I asked them to weigh it, their scales said it was 124kg. That sounded about right to me because I weigh roughly 70kg and I know I can lift my bodyweight, but I can barely lift the anvil an inch off the ground on my own.

Wow, thanks for all the replies people. Too many points to address in a reply but rest assured I've taken all your points in. I'll bookmark this thread & refer back to it over time too.

0530 - i know you're not suggesting that i'm looking for shortcuts but what you said about actually having a hit on the anvil to learn made me think i should clarify that i'm not looking for shortcuts...i need secondary aides as i live about an hours drive away from my parents house where my setup is so i only get a couple evenings a week on it so progress is slow. If i can be designing pieces at home in my flat, when i go to my parents place hopefully i'll be loosing less time to misplaced hits that have to be undone & redone.

Cheers fellas. John - i'll get down the art shop quick smart. I need all the help i can get. Rockstar - what you said about barriers couldn't be truer for me! I'm a complete novice and though i'm naturally co-ordinated (so once i've figured out how i have to form the shapes i'm finding it relatively easy to achieve what i want) it's seeing the stages i'm struggling with. It's made all the worse by my Dad being an architect who can "see" everything every step of the way, which just rubs it in! I'm sure i'll learn with time & it'll become second nature but any aides to learning are an added bonus.

Hi folks, does anyone have any tips for helping with designing simple work? I'm pretty good at visualising an end product but i can't see the stages, which is quite frustrating. E.g i can visualize a stylish bowl made from a square piece of sheet steel, but i can't see the stages...so i started to make it out a piece of card & as i started to fold it i immediately encoutered problems i never thought of.

Because I would have needed an entire rugby team to lift it, but more to the point it's a museum. There was a blacksmith on the site though who wouldn't sell me any old punches, though he did tell me that old car springs straightened out make good ones.

Hi folks, just a quick thread to post a couple pics I took today at Chatham Dockyards. Me and the wench went to a "Salute to the 40s" day but my attention drifted when I saw these beasts. Unfortunately these pics don't really give a true sense of size but these were 'on the large size' to say the least! Me and my girlfriend could both sit comfortably on the anvil. Sorry about the huge pic sizes, can't shrink em.

Cheers for the replies ppl. John B - that's a good point and I could probably get away with that due to the size, (even though we have no animals or machinery), though I know the parish council are wary of things like that because of the local pikey builder putting a barn in a field "for his machinery" which low and behold after about a year he put planning application for to turn it into a house - which is a big fat no - and now he lives in a caravan in his field. I've talked briefly to a colleague's boyfriend who has a business doing eco/traditional building like straw bale building and cob building...I think I've got a far greater chance at not raising any attention if it's a traditional style of build that's "sympathetic" to it's surroundings, plus if I went down the prefab shed route I'd feel like I was scarring my parents' land and I'd feel quite selfish. They've done a lot to improve the wildlife on their land so to plonk a prefab shed in it seems a bit naff. Whatever I do I should get on and do something about it sooner rather than later as the weather's really beginning to turn!

The three "teeth" that come together to tighten around the drill bit didn't tighten at all, they were stuck open.

Hi folks, you're never going to guess what happened...the chuck on the drill was broken and wouldn't tighten around the drill bit so I couldn't make the feet afterall! Don't all rush to kill me at once. I guess I'll have to get the dish back off him and add the feet at a later date. So instead of making the feet I knocked up a quick ashtray and experimented with "colouring" the dish. That was a real learning curve as I ruined the nice red with too much beeswax, but I ended up with some interesting colours which sadly don't really how in the picture. I rubbed beeswax and coal into the edges to soften them/darken them down, I rubbed a smashed up bit of red brick into the middle to put some red back in, but I also experimented with wire brushing the dish so I ended up with some really interesting shades of green which ran into some red then out to the black at the edges. Kinda like the weird shades of colour bruises go. Hey ho, it's all a learning curve! Atleast my mate liked the dish and it became a bit of a talking point. Thanks again for all the help.

Thanks for all the replies folks, much appreciated. GRiley I re-read your posts this morning, now I'm sober I understand what you mean though I want to keep the feet horizontal & flat to the base & I think your suggestion relies on the feet being vertical or with right angles at each end. I'll take a cple pics of the finished product for y'all to grimmace at, haha. Cheers again.

That Pict song sounds kinda folky/pagan, or the version I listened to on YouTube did anyway. Black metal is basically misanthropic folk with distortion, haha. Attempting to make the puzzle box from Hellraiser to this tune would be torturous and enjoyable at the same time :-)

There's loads of steel merchants and tool shops locally as I live in a city, I tried them all. Xxxx no, not dared venture into Londoom recently, can't face the public transport with the Olympics! Chronic ill health conditions limit my movements too. I'll try on a seperate piece as you suggest.

Cheers John. I work in a shop that sells didgeridoos so we sell beeswax bars for the end your mouth goes on, I bought a bar the other day...I'll pick up some of the lacquer you mentioned too and try test patches of both on the bottom to see the results.

Anyone else into extreme metal? Seems like the perfect partner to blacksmithing to me but most people doing videos and the like seem to be pretty "normal". Forging a knife to this song would be sublime, no?

Thomas - IF ONLY shops in England stocked the every day stuff that American DIY shops stocked! I very quickly learnt that following American "brake drum forge" designs consisting of "easy to find" products in "your local hardware store" simply don't exist in England. E.g foot long lengths of threaded pipe do not exist ANYWHERE in my area, anywhere.

David, GRiley, thankyou for your quick replies. I'll look up Tim's video. David - is a clear matt finish achieved with beeswax? I watched a David Neeman (axe and tool maker) video where he melted some beeswax over his work. I haven't wire brushed the dish at all, not whilst I was making it nor after, part of the reason being that I love the red rust VS the grey of the steel. Will adding any finish require me to remove this colour variation? P.S when I started this yesterday I thought it looked kinda Japenese, like a sushi dish or something. I tried Googleing "Japenese dish" etc to see if I could find anyting similar but I had no joy. I really like these sorta of simple and bold designs, can anyone point me towards similar stuff for inspiration for future projects?

Thanks for the replies people. GRiley - that sounds great but I have no idea how to do that and have virtually no tools. John B - I can see your point though the dish is quite heavy and the feet would only lift it slightly off the table, so any tipping would be minimal. Definitely taken note for future projects thought. Ianinsa - Thankyou. I love you. ThomasPowers - I have no idea what that stuff you mentioned is, though mixed media does sound great, (I want to approach a carpenter/joiner mate at some point for doing "Oak and Iron" pieces), and I don't think I can get a hold of the things you mentioned before tomorrow. Please keep them coming. (Especially any praise hee hee).

Hi folks, I'm a complete novice and I'm making a present for my mate's birthday tomorrow, I'm making him a simple dish, see pic attached. I have about 3 hours tomorrow to add the finishing touches so I'm really pushed for time! Just what you need when you're a novice that doesn't 100% know what they're doing and doesn't really have enough tools!!! I want to make some feet for this dish by attaching 2 pieces of round stock bar, (about 1/2 inch in diameter and about 4 inches in length), to the bottom of the dish about 3-4 inches in from each end. This dish is 6mm thick and about 30cm long. (Mixing my imperial and metric, variety is the spice of life!) A - do you think I will be able to drill the dish and the round bar with a hand drill/electric drill? My Dad has a hand drill, I have an electric. B - if I can drill everything, do you think I could make rivets with some 3mm stock to hold the feet to the dish? Or...will doing all this screw it up and I should leave it as it is without feet? (P.S. how much could I charge for a simple dish like this, with the feet? I know value is subjective but I have no idea how to calculate prices. I made this from some larger pieces of off cut which I bought for £10. I work in a shop that I could sell this kinda dish in if I asked the manager, but I don't want to approach them about selling on sale or return basis without a figure in mind.)

Ahh cheers man! I'm a perfectionist by nature so I can't help picking holes in whatever I do and these are no exception, but I suppose you've gotta start somewhere. I put up an ad in a local shop window offering free commissions on small basic items explaining I'm a novice, the deal being if I think I can make it I'll give it a go, if you don't like the end product then don't have it & i'll reuse the metal...so someone gets free iron work & i get a challenge. Makes good advertising sense to me as they say word of mouth is the best advertising & in the future i'll want to earn something frm blacksmithing.