LukeD

Am looking to get a small forge started up and am looking to get an anvil. I have a piece of railroad track to use for a while but have been looking for something with a little more weight. I know the old anvil can get pricy so for something to start with i have been looking at getting one from grizzly tools. It weighs 55 lb or harbor freight also has one that is the same weight for the same price. I know you get what you pay for but for starters I don't want to spend a ton yet

I thinking something similar to a shut off valve in the pipe going to the fire pot to turn the air down when needed

Charles. thanks for the links and threads. im still reading and trying to learn and some of the lingo is tough to understand but im getting there. the good thing is my family comes from a construction background so I have a lot of available materials such as pipe for the tuyere (took me a google search to figure out what that was) I have a small shop vac that is like a 1 gallon vac that I am going to see if I can change the direction on the air to use for an air source. if not I have a small battery operated air mattress air pump that I might use for a while until I figure out something a little better. as for the fire pot. I have read a lot use old brake rotors. I assume I could just cut a hole in the top of the drum large enough to put the brake rotor in it upside down. I also saw where a lot put a pipe off of the bottom of the fire pot for ash to settle in.

Thanks Frosty. just added my location. the forge I plan to build is a Side Blast 55. my parents used to burn trash in old 55gal drums. my dad passed around 10 years ago and so its just my mom there now and at 78 she is still very active. a few years ago while burning some trash in the trash barrels she caught the property on fire and burnt on old building to the ground. so needless to say it freaked her out a little and now she does not burn trash at all. so there are still barrels there that are in good shape so im planning on building a forge out of them

Charles. Is there any particular threads one u suggest reading through

marking for future use

Thank you much Charles. I have been reading some of the pinned posts in the forge section and also looking at beginning projects like tongs and so on and that will help also. I will end up trying to do some small work first before diving right into knives at first. there is a lot of information here that is for sure. hopefully I can figure it out to get started. I have the $50 knife book that I bought years ago and have it somewhere that ill have to dig out and read through it also. really looking forward to getting started. I might try and start building my forge this weekend while I have nothing else to do.

Hello everyone. Hope you all are well. I am new here and just signed up this morning. I have been intrigued about blacksmithing and knife making for quite a few years. I have seen some Blacksmithing demonstrations a few different times and have always thought it would be a very gratifying hobby to do. I have been doing some reading and looking around to make a small charcoal forge and have found a few different designs and one I am going to try and make to start out with. my main focus that I would like to do is knife making mainly for gifts, friends and so on. I have seen how the Railroad spike knives have become very popular and I have a large availability to them. I know they are not the most high quality knife making material out there but I believe they would be a good starting point for me. I am going to be doing some more reading on here and also looking for some tools to use. I have a good place to set up a small forge out at my parents house that is covered and has a concrete floor as well with running water close also. hopefully I will be able to get started soon and I will probably be asking some questions so please bear with me as I learn and I am looking forward to learning.