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.
Another "First Project" post
in Blacksmithing, General Discussion
Posted
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