zion2634

Is the any blacksmith class's or schools that does night or weekends in northern California? Or is the anybody this area that would be willing to give me lessons?

Yeah I've had a few people tell me to lose the rebar. It just free to me so I thought I could at least use it to make tongs. But that didn't work out very good. Actually it didn't work out at all. So I think I learned my lesson and I'm gonna lose the rebar and buy some steel that good to learn on. As far as I know I have no skills what so ever. But I was under the impression tongs were a beginner project. But from what you have said and the frustration I went through I was definitely wrong. Thank you Frozenforge I will definitely check out that web site. I've been wondering for awhile where to start and what to start with so I'm sure that will answer all my question.

Can't seem to even forge a pair of simple tongs. Don't know what I'm doing wrong but nothing seems to work out for me. I guess every mistake is a learning experience. But XXXXX is it frustrating. It going to take more than this to get me to give up tho.

I will give the ply wood a try. Thanks you guys so much for all the advise

Yes very wild with the hammer. Those hammer marks are pretty deep. I'm definitely working on my technique. And I'm pretty amazed. When these were made my small anvil was on the ground so I was kneeling down to hammer. So very good observation. Since I've raised the anvil to about waist high. So hopefully that will help

My very first forged knives. One is made out of rebar that I got at a job site the other is made out of a part for a tractor attachment that I bought. There pretty ugly but learned alot.

Thanks everyone. Ironwolf I have searched the Internet and for some reason couldn't find anything. I have been on the cba website and haven't found anything around my area. So any help you could give would be much appreciated. Thank you everyone for the welcome. Looking forward to learning from this group. Here's my first knives I made. Not pretty but I've learned alot. Don't mind the harbor freight anvil. I know it's a price of junk. My girlfriend bought it trying to be supportive of my new Hobbie.

Thank you frost. The welcome and advise is much appreciated. I will definitely check the just a box of dirt thread. The bbq is just something I threw together. I'm gathering material to make a propain forge as we speak. All the material I have came from one of the job sites I'm on. I'm a steel erector by trade. But the rebar will definitely go. I saw a guy on you tube that made a rebar knife so I figured I will give it a shot. But I understand that it's not very good to learn from. This all started with me just beating metal some metal messing around but know I'm hooked and I'm gonna start over and learn the basics first as you suggested. I tend to see something I wanna make and jump directly into trying to make it instead of learning and building up to it. Once again thank you. Your post was very informative. And exactly what i was was hoping for when I signed up. Thanks bigundoctor. I live about 2 hours north of Sacramento and 1 hour south of Redding in a small town called Corning

Anybody here from northern California? I'm very new to black smithing/ knife smithing. I've been using a old bbq as a charcoal forge and trying to learn as I go. Nobody that I know is even slightly intrested in blacksmith. Hoping to meet new people make some new friends and maybe someone to teach me a thing or to. Best regards