Rmartin2

Thanks for the reply Frosty. I was keeping my post short about using charcoal in the forge. I had just  completed my forge and I really wanted to test it out so I used charcoal for the first time. Although it turned the scrap I was using orange, my 10# bag didn't last long at all. I am fortunate that there is a place that sells pea sized blacksmith coal about 50 miles from me. I have been using this and there is no comparison in longevity and fire quality. Someday I will build a gas forge, but for now the coal is doing just fine. 

3 hours ago, littleblacksmith said:

Nice to meet you! recently it seems like a lot of new smiths are coming from Texas, but I guess with a state this big, that its going to happen. So what are you planning on doing? small decorative stuff, bottle openers, axes, larger items (sculptures), (I would mention tools, but  almost with every new project requires a new tool), or a little bit of everything?

                                                                                             Littleblacksmith

The main goal is knives, but I think after that it will be small stuff for now as I learn. The bottle openers look really cool and I would like to mess with making hooks. I will see where that leads. I don't see sculptures in my future, but some day I would love to do axes.

Hi everyone. Been lurking and reading the forums for a couple of weeks and decided to register today. There is a lot of nice information here. I got interested in bending hot metal through an interest in knife making. After grinding out a few blades I quickly realized I needed a forge. I made a home made one from a tank end cap, some 2" black pipe, and a bathroom fan. That with a bag of charcoal briquettes I turned metal red hot.

That was it. It wasn't all about  knives anymore. It had so many more possibilities and I wanted to know what and how. So now I am here.