Wfulbrig

I guess what I meant is, nowadays people crank out damascus blades with power hammers like it's nobody's business, so is it possible for a full time bladesmith to do this process by hand and produce enough blades to profit?

Wow. Ten years of experience goes a long way. Do you hand forge your Damascus or use press/power hammer? Or is it even feasible to hand forge Damascus?

baktrog, That sounds cool man. As much as I like time alone in the shop I've been looking for someone to get together with that knows what he/she is doing. I have a coal forge made out of a grill, brake drum, and a hair dryer. It has been getting the job done but I've played xxxx trying to get a good even heat prior to the quench. I work a continental shift so it goes Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday on one week then Wednesday, Thursday the next week. Send me an email and I'll give you my number. I'm off next Wednesday and Thursday if you're free then I'd like to come by.

And I forgot about the language policy. I apologize readers.

I didn't see a post about people's first time forging a blade. After I finished mine I really wanted to hear about other smiths first knife experiences. So after throwing together a blow dryer, some 2 inch pipe, and a xxxx ton of coal in an old grill 3 months ago I made this hideous knife. Thanks to a few too many silver bullets I over heated it when I went to quench and she was just too far gone. Rather than throwing it out and starting over I decided to salvage it and hang it up in the shop. It is my first knife after all. She is ugly as xxxx but I'm a proud father and have to show her off. Behold the R.R. spike knife in all its glory.

@ThomasPowers Tried running the forge with plug out. It definitely helped. I am currently in the situation you just described there. I'm a full time online student, have 2 kids under the age of 3, work 40 to 60 hours a week at night, have a house that was built in the 40's and needs tons of work, and have still managed to spend a solid 20 hours forging every week. I originally got into to it to make knives and in 3 months I haven't made the first one. I spend all my time working on fundamentals. Finally feel like I'm ready to do some knife work. Guess I'll see how it goes.

I understand. My way is definitely not a great example to follow. Just an example of a cheap setup. In the future I'll include a disclaimer. Haha. Thanks for the pointers guys.

Slotting the grille would be a great idea. I'm thinking about dismantling and building a JABOD though. As good as this thing has been working for me its hard to get away from.

I DEFINITELY need more air control. This was never supposed to be a permanent forge. Just something to get started on as I had everything I needed without spending any money. As far as "heating the center of a 3' piece of steel" I haven't yet needed to do that. I have made a set of tongs that I put bends in in order to get the center into the hot spot.

I decided to do the same thing a few months ago. I read somewhere that I could use a brake drum and stopped there. BIG MISTAKE. I wanted to reinvent the wheel I suppose. My current setup is rudimentary but gets the job done. I used an old charcoal grill with a brake drum. Then a month ago I decided to bolt a steel plate on top of the drum. I started out using wood charcoal that I made in a 55 gallon drum. I was burning through wood way to fast and use legit coal now. burns longer and hotter. Pipe goes from to blow dryer to a tee, then one nipple goes down to a union with a plug to let ash drop out. Then out of the top of the tee into a flange that is bolted to the drum. This setup didn't cost me anything. Granted my wife got a little pissed about the hair dryer, I had a grille laying around that I didn't use, and I work where I can get all the 2" pipe and fittings I could ever want without the risk of being fired. Between craigslist and purchasing the pipe and fittings you might could come in under 50 dollars.

Hey man my name's Wes. I built a coal forge a couple months ago and started setting up an area in my shop to forge. I know you are looking for someone with experience to learn from (I tried doing the same) but if you ever want to get together, drink a few beers, and learn from each others mistakes I'm available. I'm going up to Osteen's coal next week and gettin about 25 railroad spikes. I live in the Williamston area. If you ever want to stop by or don't mind if I ride out I'll provide the coal, steel, and beer. Good luck finding someone to train under. Hope you have better luck than me!