I have very little experience forge welding, I wanted to get a group of guys together and have a sort of "barn raising" type deal. There is a blacksmith nearby with many years experience. As I'm fairly young and being mostly self-taught/youtube/book/trial and error i wanted to find someone who had more experience.
I have watched every video I could find on the subject. I'm also very fortunate to have more than adequate tools for the job as far as the heavy lifting and fabricating goes. I also have made friends with several old farriers/blacksmiths in the area. I promise I wont ruin the anvil, if the forge welding is not going to work, I have asked my neighbor who is a professional welder if we could weld a hard surface plate on. Even then it would still need to be heat treated.
If I never try something that involves taking risk, how will I learn? The best teacher is failure in my experience. Though I strive for success, failure is always there, waiting for me.