JustAnotherViking

Tried to make a guitar bottle opener today. Bit rough, bit out of dimension, but at least I have a better idea for the next attempt. 

Thanks! 

I got this one for a very reasonable price considering the condition and today's market. 

Today I purchased my first anvil.

After spending several weeks scouring the internet, trying to find some for sale on local ads, or action sites, I finally got talking to the right person. A quick phone call later, I was passed some contact information. Just over an hour later, I was loading my first anvil into the car.

I can't believe the condition!

The face is almost perfect, sings beautifully all over, and over 90% rebound in the middle.

It had been sitting about for a while, as is evident by the patina, but is in otherwise great shape.

I took a very worn sanding disk to clean it up, and sort the corner radius on one side... hopefully I haven't broken any cardinal rules... it was just a very light skim to scrape the surface rust off, no heat put into it, and no material to speak of removed.

The hardy hole is about 1 1/4 inches... so that could be interesting trying to gather up big enough stock to making hardy tools.

Now I need to get a proper stand sorted... I just have a temporary one which is a bit too narrow made from scrap I had sitting about.

If you're worrying about using a lightbulb as a heater to keep away moisture, you're either have too many belts, are not using them enough or a bit of both. 

They're supposed to be consumables and trying to get every last bit of life out of them will affect the quality of your finished work. 

If you have too many or not getting enough use for moisture to be an issue, adjust your quantities, or store the excess belts elsewhere in a dry place and never worry about bulbs. 

Today I finished off a rake to go with the recently made poker.

Unfortunately the bar was cut too short, so I had to draw out the ends a bit more than I had intended, so the loops at the ends are very differently sized.... on the plus side, at least they are approximately around the same length and I kinda, sorta, almost got a similar look going.

Today I attempted to make my first bottle opener

It's a bit rough... but it opens bottles, so let's call this one a success.

Cheers!

Its a bit rough, but for my second 'completed' item, i'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

You can sort by distance on eBay UK (if you're viewing the desktop version: it doesn't work on mobile)

(Search options on left)

(Sort options on top)

 

It might be worth finding a few within a reasonable distance from yourself, and consider sending them a message to see if you can possibly view it before bidding?

The only new ones i've seen that aren't cast ASO's on eBay are the BECMA ones (ok for starting out, but not the hardest face).
For that sort of money, you'd definitely get something much better if collection is an option... or even getting a quote for 'a man with a van'... delivery wouldn't be that much.

Probably worthwhile setting up a search alert on gumtree too... there are a few up for grabs there, and while it may be an hour or two travel to view them, at least you know what you're getting.

I'm currently weighing up the cost of taking a ferry to go view in person vs taking a risk on ebay and using palette shipping to go shopping on the mainland.

Not exactly an active thread, but I did come across it while trying to search for a review of them myself, as i'm having some difficulty tracking down an anvil for sale in my area and noticed them for sale online.

I've got one of the 50kg becma anvils on loan this week so I can do some practice at home (only starting out).
Due to my complete and utter lack of experience, I wont really be able to comment or compare it to a 'good' anvil.

It has a decent enough rebound, and sings nicely all over... as mentioned, a bit soft on the face, but as a beginner; more forgiving of missed blows.
It's owned by a local group who run workshops for beginners every week, so has probably faced a fair bit of abuse, and from what I can see is holding up ok (few minor dings on the face).

Until I source one to purchase, hopefully i'll get a bit more use out of it and can comment further... just a couple of hours of use so far, and no complaints.

Two coil springs, one big, one small. 

Have chopped a few half coil lengths off each, straightened and annealed (still cooling at the minute) to make a some simple tools. 

If you can support yourself on a career doing something you're passionate about, go for it! 

Would likely be less dangerous and a less stressful working life too. 

46 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

Then I will take with a pinch of salt the documentary I saw where the prop dept, and very well known actor took great legnths to explain why they do use actual swords on stage specificaly for the choreographed fight scenes and do not rely on the sound dept to attempt to match the sound of clashing steel during live stage performances. I believe the actor, if memory serves me correctly was Ioan Gruffurd and it could have been a Royal Shalespear production, can't be sure.

I'm sure the Royal Shakespeare would have a touch more liability insurance, and professional choreograph sword training than a high school production, so i'll not argue with you on that point.

My experience is limited to TV (a certain well known HBO production), not stage, so only commenting from my personal experience.

37 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

Don't know where you get this from

From being on set, talking to the weapons master, and based on what I was holding while the camera was rolling.

Any closeups, with very little movement.. yes: very lightweight blunt sword shaped objects.

Anything with a hint of movement and action, everything was swapped out to solid cored rubber/foam casts of the originals. Even the shields were swapped out.

Quote

how can an unsharpened sword be any different from a javelin, hammer, wood chisel, baseball bat or a pointy pencil? All of which could if missused or employed maliciously cause injury!

A sword IS a weapon. Pure and simple, doesn't matter if it's wooden, blunted, or otherwise. It has a single purpose.
The other items are designed for specific, non-violent purposes. It's all down to the intended use and design, not how they they end up being used.

If a chisel was defective and someone got injured (through intended use), the liability falls with the manufacturer and their insurance, not the school.

If the chisel was misused, and a child acted violently using it, then the school would be on the hook for negligence.

A 'real' blunted sword for theatrical purposes has as much place in a school as a handgun as a discipline device to keep order in the classroom.

As a parent, I wouldn't want my children using metal weapons for a stage play. There's absolutely no need for it. It creates a greater risk of accident, regardless of liability, and adds no tangible benefit to the theatrical setting over a safer prop.

If they want to learn sword fighting, and practice it in a suitable setting, that's great... but not for a theatrical performance where accidents can happen.

As I said, it's down to the right tool for the task at hand.

You're asking the wrong question.

Real metal (especially spring steel!) has no business on a stage, especially in the hands of children.
Forget about liability: It's just too dangerous, no matter the experience of the person holding it... not even seasoned stunt actors would use a steel sword on stage or camera.

Some stage professionals will use an aluminium sword, but most will use a solid cored rubber one, painted realistically.

It's nothing to do with getting paranoid about helping others, it's about providing a tool suitable for the task.

You could suggest lending the real one to the schools art department, so they can make a silicon mould and make stage ready copies?

This was made by my wife today. 

Her first ever attempt at forging! 

Meanwhile I'm on version 1.4 of my first pair of tongs. Burnt through one end, next had the boss on the wrong side. Next had stress fractures from using too sharp an edge to set down, so  hopefully the next end will work and I can finally complete them! 

46 minutes ago, Charles R. Stevens said:

as to your tong project. One word, fuller! Either using a straight, cross or diagonal pein, edge of the anvil with a sutible radius, horn or an actual round fuller

I would suggest that a sledgehammer head from a boot sale would make a beter anvil than you have now

The first week of trying to draw it out was using a rounded hammer head on the bick, and last week I got to use a fuller die on the fly press.... such a difference to the speed!!!
Unfortunately when I got to the second set of reigns, I may have got distracted for a moment too long and burnt the piece in half and had to start again 

Cheers for the suggestion....i'll keep an eye out, but unfortunately due to the change in season (and lovely irish climate), boot sales are pretty much finished for this year, so it'll be spring before they start up again. I might get lucky before then and get a big lump of something else (have already started spreading the word and have a possible lead on some scrap plate and general stock)
 

40 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

Those look like soft fire brick---are they?  If so *good* , the hard ones are massive heat sinks.

Can you find a small metal cart to haul/store all your smithing stuff on? 
What are you interested in making? 

They are indeed soft ones. I was looking into getting a kiln shelf for the bottom, but nothing at a sensible price available locally to get started, so i'll just stick with the soft brick all round for now.

For now I think the only thing i'll need to lift in and out will be the forge/burner (due to the weather and my two kids... i'm sure soft brick would be great fun to break apart).
All being well i'll have the shed sorted within the next month or so and it'll no longer be an issue.

Interested in making a bit of everything... decorative pieces, brackets, hooks, bottle openers.. the usual beginner projects.
Ultimately i'd like to get the skills to make some of my own tools for other projects from bike building to wood work, and anything else that looks fun.

Many thanks for the words of welcome and advice!

Greetings all.
I'm Chris from Northern Ireland, and i've recently decided to pick up a hammer and hit hot metal for fun.
Writing software pays the bills, and riding motorcycles brings the thrills.

I've always wanted to give blacksmithing a go, but never really knew where to begin. 
Fortunately, a few weeks ago I discovered a local blacksmithing workshop/club who run a 'come and give it a try' class every Saturday.

On my first week, I was handed a bit of mild steel flat bar, and under great instruction produced the following oddly formed, burnt, letter opener:

Following what I considered a successful first try, I thought it would be a great idea to make a pair of tongs next.
As reward for this ambitious endeavour, I was handed a lump of 20mm square bar and endured a sweat inducing, exhausting second day of trying out this fantastic craft.

Funnily enough, after bashing away for 4 hours, I had only managed to rough form the two bits/boss shapes, and made a start on drawing out the reigns...

Fast forward to last weekend, continuing the same project, I was introduced to the fly press. What a difference!!!
(Although it did feel a bit like cheating after two weeks of exhausting work... and still not finished. Hopefully tomorrow will be the day!)

Despite only having three sessions under my belt, I've decided to quit my day job and become a full time.... Kidding! (...although I'm sure I now have all the experience necessary to knock out a perfect sword next week* ).

After three short days of brilliant fun, I've decided this is going to be the start of a fantastic new hobby, and after many hours of reading topics on here about which type of forge is the best for a beginner, what sort of tools are needed, hammer weights, improvised anvils, and all sorts, I have a bit of a notion about getting set up with my first forge (and by 'a bit' I mean I read a lot of posts and made some uninformed decisions and decided to just run with it rather than pestering with the same questions you've all answered a thousand times over).

First up, I grabbed a reasonably priced 2.5lb club hammer, took to the faces with a grinder, and changed the handle to a longer one (also squaring it off for better grip).
One face semi rounded, the other a bit flatter.

Next I settled on building a gas forge at home due to it being a residential area, cleaner, etc (we use coal down at the local group) .

Despite the great advice, blueprints etc here for building a burner, I decided to go ahead and purchase one to reduce the chances of me messing up, inducing dangerous leaks though dodgy drilling, modifying jets, etc.

Since I don't really have a clue what i'm going to make yet, I grabbed a few firebricks and some kiln wash, thinking I can rearrange them as required to suit whatever I end up attempting to make
(coating the inside with the kiln wash to try and prolong their life a little until I sort something better with a kiln shelf, castable refractory, and so on).
Despite wanting a 'modular' forge, I ended up contradicting myself, and welding a few bits of scrap together to make a kind of 'cage' for the bricks in a certain arrangement so I can move it about.

I can at least change the side walls a bit to make it smaller, and take out the back so I can pass longer pieces through... hopefully...

I'm in the process of getting a new shed/workshop with concrete floor built, so until that's sorted, I need to lift everything in and out of storage, so for the sake of a bit of scrap, hopefully the size will be ok for occasional usage!

Fabricobbling only finished today, so i've only got as far as doing a soap bubble test on the burner/lines for leaks, and lighting it once.
Given the delightful climate here, I got it lit, tweaked the pressure and choke, and shut it off again.
(yay for rainy irish weather!)

It might be a bit of a big burner for the size of the forge (please feel free to throw relevant abuse in my direction for incorrect assumptions), but I was hoping it would be a case of just having a lower pressure for the smaller forge, and being able to 'upgrade' the brick arrangement to something bigger in the future without also having to make a bigger burner should the need arise.

Anvil wise, i'm on the hunt for a suitably large hunk of steel to get started (and have a little cash set aside should a proper one appear on the market and i'm quick enough!).
While the search continues, i've got a small lump of rail with the top ground flat, and supposedly heat treated.  
Not great, but it'll have to do in the short term until I get something with more mass behind it.

Ultimately I want to learn to try and do a little bit of everything; from small decorative pieces, to tools, possibly try a knife or two, and quite likely try and combine this new hobby with my love of motorcycles and incorporate some forged pieces into my next custom bike build!

Anyway, i've rambled on long enough. Thanks for having me, and cheers for all the great info and advice here!

[*this comment was intended as humour in case that wasn't clear... misinterpretations on the internet and all that...]

(p.s. sorry about all the pics, I resized them before attaching to try and get them around 100kb each.... happy to throw some change towards bandwidth and forum running costs if someone can point me in the right direction)

14 minutes ago, PVF Al said:

Good job, Just Another Biker. Way better than my first forging. Enjoy the journey. Al

It certainly helped that the guys running the workshop were fantastic instructors!
On my own i'd probably end up with an unrecognisable burnt bit of flat bar with a few hammer marks in it.

My biggest issue was the extractor hood over the forges... I may have been a little too tall as a bit burn on my forehead can attest to

Many thanks for the feedback, much appreciated.

It was just a piece of mild steel flat bar, pretty much just a decorative piece (or letter opener at best) to try and learn some basic techniques in a relatively short time (took a little over 2 hours)

No heat treatment, and very much burnt (I was struggling quite a bit between getting a decent grip with the tongs during the final stages of rolling the handle and figuring out how to maintain a coal forge).

It was done during a beginners workshop down at a local forge, so trying to cram in drawing out, basic shaping, etc into a short session.
I'm in the process of setting up a small gas forge at home to practice, so i'm hoping to just work on basic techniques, perhaps making some tools and go from there... doubt i'll be making anything I would be chopping with for several months at least.

Hi all.
First time poster, short time lurker... Many thanks for all the great information and discussion!

I tried my hand at forging for the first time on Saturday and, even after such a short session, I am now obsessed and can't wait to get back to pounding on hot steel again!

This is my first ever piece, so please be kind.