jumbojak

Tools and equipment can be had all around, often for cheap. If you can find a large, hard rock you have yourself an anvil. A very crude anvil but an anvil nonetheless. There is a member here who does just that. Forges can be made easily enough - there are many designs ranging from a hole in the ground to water cooled marvels - and fuel is whatever you can lay hands on that will burn. A hairdryer will work for a blower and hammers can be had for next to nothing used and very cheaply new. If there's one thing I've learned over the last few months it's that I didn't know what I needed at the start. Had I gone out and bought what I thought I needed I almost certainly would have given up in disgust and frustration and been much poorer for it. Both financially and spiritually. Keep things simple at the start and use your time to decide what conveniences you really think would make working easier and more enjoyable. Most importantly though, is to have fun. Get dirty, sweaty, and stinky. Try new things. Learn new things. Fail, examine, and improve. Just don't get caught up in the idea that tools or equipment will make things work for you. Because they won't. Keep as much of your money as possible and invest as much time as you have to spare. Learning to forge is a lot like raising children in that way, I think.

They look very nice. Out of curiosity, what sort of wood did you use for the second knife? It looks almost like sassafras to me though the grains seem a bit large compared to what I'm familiar with.

Welcome! Not being sure what sort of system you are using to access the forum I can't be exactly sure how posting pictures would work for you, but I use the "Click to choose files" button at the bottom of a text box. Haven't actually posted many pictures myself (I'm still too busy failing my way to success!) but something similar should work for you.

Random House would probably disagree with that assessment. The book is still under copyright, and they bought Ten Speed Press which means they likely hold the rights to the book.

The Complete Modern Blacksmith is cheaply available on Amazon's Kindle. It's a bit of a pain to find what you're looking for as the table of contents is barely functional but it is an excellent book.

Definitely remove the valve. They may have tested it at the factory. Not that I'm an expert on propane tank manufacturing, but it's better safe than sorry.

At this point, I stay inside. ;} I am working on a small metal shed though and was thinking about putting some foam on the ceiling do my heater doesn't make it rain. If nothing else I'll get a fee cans of Great Stuff and see how that works.

Ethan, I am truly envious of your talent. Seeing work like that makes me want to go out and light the forge right now to catch up to your abilities. If only my neighbors were as understanding as your family seems to be. Keep up the good work!

I've been trying to get used to wearng hats. A bandanna I can almost stand but hats bother me for some reason. The one hat I did like was a furry one with ear flaps I bought a few years ago at a gas station. My girlfriend was pretty surprised when I jumped back in the car looking like a Teddy Bear! Unfortunately, I think the dog got hold of that one. It hasn't been seen in some time.

My number one pet peeve for this year? People who find out you have a forge and immediately ask for a sword. My number two pet peeve? People who, upon learning that I am in no way qualified to actually make a sword insist that they can wait a few months until I have everything figured out. It only takes a few months... right???

I was a kid who was thrown into potentially dangerous work without any real instruction. My dad wouldn't have had it that way but after the family fell apart the farm we moved to needed things done and I was expected to do them! At the age of thirteen I was taking a JD 4020 down the road that really didn't belong in the field. All this was with no real instruction. So, while I think there are jobs small children shouldn't do there is a proper way to go about educating them. Baby steps until they master basic tasks, followed by the "fun" stuff that requires forethought and planning to do safely. Driving a truck is pretty simple, a tractor less so, and a forklift can get you into real trouble in a hurry. When we did fabrication work for the farm things like safety glasses weren't even a consideration. Welding was done wearing whatever shoes and clothes you happened to have on with zero concern for how wet the ground was. Galvanized? Heck, galvanized metal was prized for the fact that it could be had for free and that metallic taste in your mouth was just part and parcel with doing a days work. Whatever you do with your kids, make sure they are mature enough to understand the risks, are then informed of the risks, and can then assess what could go wrong and how they, or others, could get hurt. It might be a good idea to find some video online of just how bad an accident can be to get the message across before you start. If I knew then what I know now I can assure you I wouldn't have done a lot of the foolish tasks that were assigned to me.

My shop is the yard, so working in winter means extra warm clothes and a few of those warmer packets thrown into my boots to help keep the ground chill off of my feet. I'm currently working on setting up a small shed for light work that can be done indoors. Which reminds me... I need to get a door. A small heater would be nice too. Electric isn't an option but I might be able to get hold of a second hand Kero-Sun that should do the trick.

Well, whddya know? That long reply just went poof, and was gone! Poof I say, POOF!!! I'll try to post an explanation again later...

A coat or two of Kool Seal and a ventilation fan in the rafters will help with the heat too. We used to have that setup in our hog houses and it drops the tempetature considerably. Reduce the heat radiated down and then pull whatever does make it out of the building. Might be cheaper than an insulated ceiling and you wouldn't need to run the fans all the time either. Of course, your pretty roof wouldn't be quite so pretty afterwards. That might not make sense but I'm less of a carpenter than I am a blacksmith. My words escape me sometimes.

Ha! I can post again. I was almost to the point of sending PMs to thank everybody. Thanks for all the input folks. This one will be very simple, just a handle and a hook with a scratchy surface. Like the ones you can buy at the dollar store but in working order. I bought some wood paste and may give it a go as a finish for this, or leave it natural and see what happens. My scrap pile is very much in the construction phase so stainless is out as a material though I will be scrounging for oven racks from here on out. I almost bought a piece of key stock yesterday but decided that the largest on the shelf was a bit too small. And thank you very much for the Bob Ross reference Frosty. Now I won't be able to swing a hammer without muttering to myself about "happy little bends" and "happy little twists" and whatnot!

Searching didn't turn anything up so I decided to post a question. I have an idea for a project, though I'm not sure how well it will work given the intended purpose. The Old Man has been aching for a decent backscratcher for years. You can buy the cheap wooden and plastic ones, but the edge is never well defined enough to be useful. Nowadays all the corners in his house are worn from rubbing as he passes by. Some of the trim along doorframes is coming off completely. He needs something to scratch the itch and I know I can make something fit to purpose. My question is about protecting the metal from rust without either defeating the point of the whole endeavor - wax would make the scratcher too slick to scratch - or potentially irritating his skin with a more durable treatment. Treating the finished scratcher with olive oil came to mind, as I have seen people use oil soaked rags on hot metal and I would think that olive oil wouldn't smell too strongly or irritate the skin if used in this way. I'm probably wrong on this front, but that was my first idea. Are there any better treatments or should I not worry too much about rust and just make the scratcher and see how he likes it? As an aside, we got into an argument about "metal leaves" a few weeks ago. When I told him I was going to try to learn how to make them he couldn't understand what I was talking about. He thought I was planning on picking a leaf from a tree and somehow turining it into metal. When he grasped what I meant he was certain that metal leaf wasn't the right terminology for what I was referring to. Of course, he couldn't think of a better term but we're still stewing over the subject. Either way, no matter how ugly, asymetrical, unbalanced, and mishapen it is in the end, his scratcher WILL HAVE a leaf on the end! Kill one bird with two stones. A girl I used to work with said that once and it finally makes sense.

I know the quotes are messed up, but I can't seem to get the boxes to work properly without the forum eating my post. Does this forum software support BBCode?

I was trying to get rid of the guy! He saw what I was doing and started talking about some bladesmith competition show on television. With my absolute best poker face I looked him in the eye and told him that I didn't watch television. Of course he said that he didn't either. After a second speil I remembered what I was doing and rushed to pull it out. Melted, burned glob at that point. It really doesn't take long. The only problem I can see with a foot switch - trust me, the idea crossed my mind - is that the coal I'm using now is the Tractor Supply anthracite that was mentioned in another thread. It seems to work great, so long as there is consistent airflow feeding the fire. If I manage to find a supply of bituminous coal and like it (honestly though, the anthracite is pretty sweet) I'll get a foot switch. The anthracite seems like it starts going out the second its airflow is cut off. Unplugging the blower long enough to grind the face of that wedge was enough time that I needed about twenty minutes to get the fire hot again. It seemed to work best when the coal had gone all gummy and stuck together. Then a piece of scrap picked up the heat in a hurry.

So there it is, my first anvil. It's a 12 pound metal handled splitting maul with the top ground down to a flatish face (I did a bit of draw filing to true it up but it still needs some work) driven into the ground through a stump that was conveniently rotten through the heartwood. While it may not be pretty it worked much better than the heavy angle I was hammering on a few nights ago. The combination of the stump with the handle driven into the ground left me with a fairly stable surface, though the small size leaves a few things to be desired. Like... more SIZE!!! I can't complain though. Today was a lot of fun, even if I didn't manage to make anything useful besides a coal rake. A coal rake is definately the first thing someone should make. Sticks are unsuitable, as are pieces of round stock and rebar. One other thing I learned though is that when a politician drops by to ask you for your vote always take whatever you happen to be working on out of the fire. Always, always, always, take metal out of the fire. Especially if it was something thick that you had been working on for a while...

Don't discount old, used files either. I've picked up rusted "worn out" files that cut like liquid soap after a proper cleaning. You might not know how the job will turn out until you finish but a light picking with soft metal and a soak to take the accumulated rust off and sharpen the teeth can really work wonders. The delicate work doesn't take very long and it's really not that delicate to begin with. People tend to junk files for silly reason - like being gummed up with oil - and as expensive as they are it can be worth it to have a second look. I just cleaned and sharpened a Simmonds bastard cut mill file that had been discarded and I swear it cuts better than a new Nicholson I picked up a few weeks ago. Just stay away from the really cheap files you see on shelves. One other note: don't take the folks who claim that Mexican made Nicholson's are junk too seriously. They may be a mixed bag but they certainly aren't as bad as some would suggest. I haven't had any serious problems with them, though at the same time I know people who can properly use a file who have complained of poor quality. I say this because someone looking for files is likely to run across this sort of scaremongering.

Thank you for the info David. I'll be sure to have a look!

Just getting started NickOHH. Just getting started... I really tried to come up with a pun for that one. No dice this time though.

It worries me at times though. the other day I asked for "crisps" with a sandwich and the guy across the counter had no idea what I was talking about. Thanks for the welcome stan. By header do you mean the thread title or something in my profile? I'm on mobile and can't seem to find any way to even edit my posts, much less the title of the thread. Oh well, new forum, new way of doing things. As to people living within spitting distance I found the section for the Tidewater group on here. I suspect that the post vise I've been looking at on Craigslist is listed by one of their members. The locations match up, but I'm no Bruce Wayne... As to an anvil, I plan on heading to a scrapyard next Monday with my brother. He has an actual work truck so we should be able to find a suitable chunk a steel for general hammering purposes. He has a sawmill and I think he gets a kick out of one of us sawing lumber while the other hammers metal. Heck of a nice guy that brother of mine. What's this TPAAAT you speak of? I'll drop it in the search box later but am on the ferry headed to work now, furiously attempting to reply to all the kind folks who welcomed me here. Oh well, I'm sure I'll find out in due time. Not much in the way of pics at the moment though I may be able to put something up about my file sharpening kit and methodology. I use the quick method (muriatic acid) and if nobody has anything on here regarding proper safety precautions when using that method it'd probably be useful to have. I've seen a lot of recommendations online for using that stuff and very little GOOD information on how to use it safely! Also, puns are fine by me. Just so long at they're really, REALLY punny. Bet you never heard that one before....

Hello everyone, on the internet I'm know as jumbojak, JJ, and occasionally as Mick. The last one is what folks tend to call me in real life but, due to the ease of managing accounts across multiple forums with a single handle I tend to go by jumbojak on the web. That one has been with me for a while now. I'm new to blacksmithing, having just fired my forge up for the first time today, though I would like to reach a point where I can make hand tools and simple decorative iron work. That level will be a long time in the making so I plan to give it all I have and sort of... fail my way to success, if you know what I mean. With a little luck I hope to find something suitable to use as an anvil within the next week so I can start practicing in earnest. Tools are fairly limited right now but that's okay. I plan on using my car as my "work truck" for the time being and have all my equipment as portable as possible. Fortunately, I drive a Buick and the boot is big enough to comfortably carry the forge, a largish toolbox, charcoal in ample quantities, various long handled instruments, a vise and stand (still working on restoration of the vise at the moment), a large bovine animal, and enough gravel to resurface a driveway. Okay, the last few were a joke but I look in that trunk and see nothing but space. My colliery goes in the back seat. Well, I think that about covers everything. For those interested I'm from the Tidewater region of Virginia and have lived here all my life. My girlfriend is English - just in case you were wondering about my use of the word "boot" in relation to the car - so if I fall into British spelling don't think I'm some kind of troll attempting to play both sides of the pond. I may at times talk about labour but you will never hear me utter the word aluminium! Cheers, Mick P.S. I also have a rather odd fascination with hand files. No idea where it comes from, but I absolutely love them. Especially old files needing TLC and a good sharpening. We all have our quirks, I guess.