Hi everyone. I've been reading the forum for the past few months and I though I'd finally say hi. I've enjoyed the flood of first project posts in the past few days. It seems like we have a lot of beginning smiths so I don't feel as self conscious.
I'll post a more detailed intro in the introduce yourself forum- here's the short of it. I'm a wood worker who has always been interested in blacksmithing. I finally took the plunge and picked up an old Canedy-Otto #105 forge about a month back. I spent some time de-rusting the forge and rebuilding the blower. and I now have a working forge. Some before and after pics:
Photo 1
Photo 2
I think it looks much better with a raging fire in it!
I fired it up yesterday and got to work with hot metal for the first time. I learned a lot just playing around for a couple of hours. I tried to taper and scroll, I used a hot-cut hardy, and I burned up a piece of steel I'd flattened out to see how much heat it would take. Fun stuff! My only injury is the blister I have on my hammer hand.
I made two tools to tend the coal fire. A hooked poker thing, and a water can. Not pretty, but they work!
Photo 3
That's it for now. Thanks everyone for the great information posted here.
Josh
