Desmond Redmon

Visited the Maumee Valley Blacksmiths today, great group of very knowledgable folks. I walked in with some steel and a bit of time and received a good bit of information, a heap of humility, and perhaps a thimble full of wisdom. They were all great at helping me to learn hammer control, flame control, and ingenuity. I spent a lot more time watching others and listening and made a small project stopping to talk about what I was doing at each step and (more importantly) why I was doing it. Cannot thank these volunteers nearly enough for all of their time and help. So Tada my first wall hook.

A word, as someone who has asked questions that are answered in the forums (pinned or not). I asked because what is logical placement isn't obvious to those who don't know as much as the authors. After all it used to be that information was lost when the last person or copy died out, but now it's lost because it is buried in the masses of posts. That said I quit asking while I try to digest the pinned posts at least =-)

I will look up the Weygers book. I don't expect to turn water to wine tomorrow as the saying goes. Thanks for the input!

My current material on hand is 1018, A36, and 1045. So, steel would be the accurate answer. What I want to forge out of it is open, right now I want to learn because I don't know. My question was driven towards learning the fundamentals that can be used in blacksmithing in general. I would like to learn eventually to make my own smithing tools and at some future date to harden and temper steels for woodworking. For now I am looking to the very beginning projects, think what you would hand someone walking into your forge never having seen an anvil, what would you teach them first. I know what I would teach an aspiring machinist first (care for your tools), but I am asking you folks what you would teach first. Come to my machine shop and after 20 years I know the things I would teach you first because they are the foundations of learning the skill of machining.

I guess this should be filed under "I want to forge Iron"... If I have to ask the question, I know others have the same kind of question I do, so I will be the one to ask. Can any of the more experienced heads here give a progressive learning kind of organized list of projects? A few of the books I have read suggest starting out with a simple flat head screwdriver, beyond that very basic shaping of iron I would love some input from you all on a good strategy to learn the fundamentals of smithing? In a way I guess the question is about what are the most fundamental lessons I should be learning more than what the final product is.