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Shots are good. One thing about mine, to go from forge to anvil to workbench, all I have to do is turn around....

That's on my list of things. Need some better weather. This 4 degree cold is no good for a dirt floor and no insulation shop haha.

Frosty's design looks like a very good one. I've read a number of his posts, and at the risk of swelling his head, he knows what he's talking about. I would recommend staying with the same sizes of things he lists for materials though. They are that size for a reason. I think part of the inefficiency of my first burner was not having my top reducer being the correct size. It was based on the Reil, and I don't think I was getting correct airflow.

That's probably the same one I have. 110lb, about 70%, and nice and quiet. One day I'd like to get a good steel anvil. I know the difference was big just moving to the Vulcan, I can imagine it would be even better on good steel. The biggest downside to the Vulcan for me at the moment is the flat bulky horn. Makes some turning projects harder than they should be.

Didn't mean to sound like such an xxx, and I apologize. I could have worded that better. There is a lot of info here, I've been tapping into it for quite some time even before I signed up. I don't know anything about building a foundry. The only foundry work I have ever done was back in Jr. high and that was more than a couple weeks ago for sure. I do know I built my first burner and it was one that was supposed to be pretty good, but cheaper than some of the more "tried and true" versions. It ended up costing me more in the long run because it lacked in efficiency and I ended up replacing it with a better model. So despite my initial crassness, my intent was honest. Go with a good design to begin with. They may cost a little more initially, but they are proven and will serve you much better.

I don't know if I want to come visit now Das, I'd get lost in your shop..... You've got more space just in your open area between your forge, anvil, and welder than I have in my entire "shop".

Very nice!

I'm pretty new too and don't have a big budget. Considering this is something that is going to mix fire and an extremely volatile gas, it was something that I didn't feel I wanted to skimp on. My recommendation is to go with something tested and proven. This is a pretty labor intensive craft to be complaining about a whole hours worth of research.

I've watched that video before. I am only 6 months into this, but going from a rail "anvil" to a Vulcan with a hard face was a very noticeable difference even at my low experience level. I don't notice much for "lifting" the hammer, but steel moves much easier and I work with less effort. Common sense should tell you rebound is caused by a harder material. The harder your material the more rebound you get and less energy is allowed to transfer to the ground. Thus more energy transferred back into your piece. If it wasn't important we'd all be using just the stump.

I'm pretty new to this myself, but to go along with your reading, I actually learned quite a bit from making myself a few pairs of tongs. You get a lot of hammering and drawing out practice, and end up with something that will be a useful addition to your shop.

Very good point. I've got another roughed out, so I will definitely keep that in mind when grinding.

That is an absolute beast! An awesome looking beast though!

That's good.... I thought some wanna-be smith was putting ideas in your head.

A few photos that are a little better. Thanks! It's still got a few scratches in it, but I'm learning more with each one. I wouldn't even know what to do with a fifth..... Thanks! That's what I was shooting for. Something similar to my Wusthof chefs knife, but smaller. Thanks! I tested it on some onions and it slices well. It's no sushi knife for sure, but it seems to do ok for general purpose. I based it off a template I saw and tried to forge it as close to that as I could get it. Then ground it close to what my 8 inch chefs knife is for thickness. I'm learning more as I go, so any input is definitely welcome.

That looks like a lot of work. Who put that silly idea into your head?!?!

Finally got my daughters Christmas present done..... This is the 5th knife I have ever made and 6th blade. (The odd one was a straight razor.) Leaf spring steel, oil quenched and 2 cycles of tempering. White oak handle scales and sitting on top of her new cutting board I made for her also of white oak. (She really likes white oak.) Sorry for the crappy cell phone pic, I'll try to get better ones before I send it.

Went to an antique shop yesterday and found this for $8. Going to make twisting a lot easier.

That is a big spring for sure. My dad knows one of the bus garage owners close to me, so I'm going to see about possibly sourcing some there. Maybe old axle shafts too. The one mechanic down town is keeping an eye out for pieces for me as well. He gave me one of the pieces I was working with. There is a guy up the road from me that just put 4 train axle trolleys in his field. Don't know where he got them from but those are some pretty hefty springs on those. Going to have to stop and talk to him one of these days. I stopped at a couple local scrap yards, but NY state will not or can not sell to you from the yard. The one close in PA, it's always "stop back when one of the boss men are here". There are 4 apparently, and none of them are ever there.

Not a replacement, they had to shave some extra bone off the femur head and re-attach some torn cartilage in the socket. So no fancy titanium for me. I'd like to get some heavy coil spring. This was semi truck leaf a bit over 3/8 thick, so I would cut a rectangular-ish billet off and then draw it out and into shape. I've been practicing drawing using my anvil edge, the horn, and the end of my cross peen. So far I'm most efficient drawing length using the anvil edge, but the horn does come out cleaner. My vulcan anvil has such a flat wide horn though, it doesn't seem to move the steel as fast. So I'm trying to do my heavy moving with the edge, then clean it up and finish drawing on the horn. Width drawing, I'm using my hammer face edge or the cross peen. I've got a Picard Swedish style hammer that I really like and do most of my work with now. Might look into a rounding hammer just because, but I'm trying to learn and be proficient with what I have before adding too much more into the mix. Part of my problem is sometimes I revert back to swinging the hammer like I did as an ironworker driving bullpins. I have to catch myself and get it back under control. Loose grip, precise hits, consistent controlled swing. You are only moving a small heated/softened piece of steel, not 6,000 pounds of structure.... Chill out.

Thanks Frosty! My big thing with distance right now is I recently healed up from one hip surgery and supposed to get the other one done. So it's more of a money thing at the moment being off of work. At least I can stand at the anvil ok. That doesn't require a lot of movement in the hip. Been using scrap metals for the most part. Knives and such have been made from leaf spring. I know, I know.... Not the best thing, but it was free and harden-able. If you like pictures, here are a few more. The straight razor is my own. My grind wasn't perfect by any means, but trying to do a hollow grind with no experience on the end of a 4x36 cheap belt sander was a challenge. It ended up being more of a half hollow, but it shaves very well. Everything else was Christmas gifts. The S hook pot rack was for my mom, the TP holder (and there was a matching hand towel holder) was for one of my girls, the wood chisel was for the father-in-law, (candle holders above were for the mother-in-law), the hunting knife was for the boy, fire poker was for my dad, and the chefs knife that is still waiting to be finished (hopefully in the next couple days) is for the other girl.

Thanks for the welcome! Awesome to find out there are more people somewhat around my area than I thought.

Thanks for the welcome Steve! Allentown is a long haul, but just about anywhere is for me haha. 2hrs to Erie, 3.5 hours to Pittsburgh, just over 4 to Allentown... I'm not near anything. I will definitely keep it in mind if I get the itch for a weekend trip though! I am hoping to be able to do a little traveling to be able to attend some events, and I did find one shop, firestone forge, about an hour from me, but no listings for events. I'll probably get ahold of them when the weather warms up a little.

Hi Mike! I got the right one then when I hit the follow button haha. I've been doing some reading and saw about the search thing. Also saw Victor is on here too. His darn fault I got started in all of this to begin with hahaha!

I have worked with metal in some sort of way most of my life. Fabricating, Ironworker, welding, pipefitting, and even some machining. So I had a little basic knowledge of some things. I got involved in a conversation on another site about heat treating, then we progressed into smithing. I've always been interested in it, and my great grandfather was a professional smith. My dad still has a few of his tools left. So with this conversation going, I decided at the end of last July it was time to get off my butt and finally give this a real try. I started with a makeshift forge that did not insulate like it should and a home made burner that was not putting out the heat that it should. I had a couple hammers and a piece of rail for an anvil. Long story short, I did a lot of fiddling and fighting with the forge trying to get things heated and moving correctly, and I lucked up and found a Vulcan 110 pound anvil at a pretty fair price of $200. After a major overhaul of my forge, I'm actually moving some steel now. I have gone from my first set of tongs and attempt at a "knife" last August, To candle holders, fire pokers, straight razor, wood chisel, pot racks, more tongs, more knives and just overall being completely hooked. Now my goal is to keep learning and furthering my skills and knowledge, and hopefully meet up with a few people. I've talked to Ed Appleby and hope to get the chance to attend some of the PABA events this year. Looking forward to sharing some more experiences here.