I came across an instructable maybe a month ago on making an aluminum melter. For some reason it just struck me as something right up my ally, I think 'love at first site' comes to mind actually. Since then I have been doing research on forges and smithing and smelting and what have you and I have decided I really do want to give this a try. I thought about the melting, but that is not me, I like to do stuff with my hands more and I decided blacksmithing would be something neat to try out.
Anyways I am very serious about this now, I have plans to build a forge, looking at just a tub with a blower and fed on coal or charcoal. Coal will allow for a hotter temperature, and I have plenty laying around, especially in the summer, we heat our house in the winter with coal because it is considerably cheaper.
I was also thinking I might start off with gas because a turkey fryer is 30$ and throws out about 160,000 BTU or the 60$ gives me 250,000 BTU, is that enough for melting metals though?
Anyways my task now is to research and to begin buying up pieces, which is hard on a high schooler's salary.
Anyway, introduction time, my name is Ian, I live in Connecticut. I am a Junior in high school, 17, and right now I am debating my future, I am thinking electrical because that is my favorite class in school, I love it, and it lets me use my hands and with time I can become my own boss. I also enjoy reenacting, but there is not a very large job pool for that, nor are there many jobs near me for it, this is some of what led me into the idea of blacksmithing by the way.
Not your typical Nutmeger, I do lots of hunting, I hunt deer, duck, hog, helped with a moose once. I also hunt with a bow, usually a recurve or a straight up long bow, no offense I just find bow hunting is about your own strength and to me compound bows are cheating, its like hunting deer without having to stalk him first. I also fish, take up odd hobbies, I am right now working on modifying our riding lawnmower, my goal is to get it running at 30mph with minimal engine changes, I am at about 20 now.
Anyways I found this website, thought it said blacksmithing on the top, and than I reread it and it said bladesmithing. It was an OK website, and I forgot to favorite it. So I go back to try and find it, I used Google, and came across this website instead. I like this one much more, the articles are a bit more thorough and people seem to know what they are talking about, the other site was a bit lacking from the majority of the people.
