Hey smiths,
I just found this site and I find myself reading everything, to be honest, I stop when it goes over my head, so it’s safe to say I have a lot to learn. I'm a certified gold and silver smith, with experience in making everything jewelry. The Blacksmith journey started with the need to build the tools I wanted, but un-willing to pay the price to buy, when the price in sweat brought more satisfaction. I'm comfortable working in the fine metals and I know my way around all my torches and welder and have built everything with the tools on hand or built to build with.
I’m not sure yet which part I like best, building something or building the tools to build with. Currently learning to turn bowls and building the tools/chisels needed to do that.
Now to the steel, I started with knives, moved to chisels and now my first real larger work was to build a taffy hook for an avid candy-maker (no, I did not know what a "taffy hook" was when I was asked to build it).
I want to learn to play with big-boy hammers and real fire (fire, I can feel not just see).
One of the photos show the array of metal smith hammers I've built. some of the chisels I've created and some work currently in process. I've Learned the hard way to polish first then Harden. After annealing – polishing and re-hardening, the hammers have worked great for years now. The chisels are better than the ones I purchased, which is why I’m now building ever turning chisel I want / need, and I turn handles to fit my hands or the needs I have for the tool.
All work to date is done with torch and small anvils (some of which I also built to address my needs)
So where do I go from here? Do I build a forge, gather some tongs and other tools and start pounding metal? Or is there a place where people gather to teach new kids (new-old kid) how to move metal and build great stuff?
Is there a learning lab, where a person can use a forge and develop the skills to be good at this trade? I don’t necessary want to shoe horses, but a decorative gate, a railing, a knife or two or custom fireplace tools seems like a reasonable place to start….
