Howdy y'all, I have been reading various topics on here for the last few days and I decided to go ahead and make the leap into all of this, so I thought I should join to have a way to learn.
A little over a week a close friend's dad died and it got me thinking about all the things I want to do and have put off. He was a great man and huge inspiration to me for getting back to the basics of everything. I am a 5th generation woodsmith but had gotten caught up in the monotony of working and life in general. He was a extremely talented woodworker as well as a blacksmith, though his real passion was history and I had the privilege of attending several reenactments with him. He taught me the ways of 1800's carpentry that sparked an entire new passion for woodworking that brought joy back to my family craft and creating from nothing.
But back to the reason I'm here, I had always said I would go to the forge and learn a thing or two from him. He became ill and long story short we never made it there. So this past few days I decided I was going to try anyway, I am going to clean out a section of my barn today and begin assembling my work area. I have an old bbq pit made out of large steel pipe for the forge, a thing I used to practice welding to use as an anvil, and a lot of railroad spikes. I bought myself a 2.5 pound blacksmith hammer from the hardware store yesterday so i think I'm ready to get started though I'm not sure what that means.
If anyone has any advice on getting started I'm all ears, please tell me anything you think i should know. I look forward to this new endeavor and hopefully making a few friends here.
