Hello Everyone,
I am new to the site and wanted to introduce myself. As you can see my username is Oberon, I live in Glen Carbon IL about 30 minutes from St. Louis. I have been interested in forging for many years. As with a lot of people my first interest was in swords but at the time that my first interest started I was deployed to Iraq and had just finished watching a bootleg copy of the Highlander series in my off duty hours. So let's just say the timing wasn't right. Since then years have passed and I still haven't started for one reason or another and now I am trying to accumulate as much knowledge to get started as possible. I read the start here article and have a lot of digging to do on the site. I cant wait to get in and read some of the other articles.
I have several books already but I was curious if anyone had any recommendations for reading on starting a forge, blacksmithing, bladesmithing, or just books that have diagrams or pictures of items such as knives or tools that I could start with.
Another dilemma that I am running into is a forge space to start with. I live in a neighborhood with a .21 acre lot. So not very large. I have a 3 car garage with one side completely unused. My concern is for safety purposes, is this the right place to build a forge? On top of that would be the sound concern, disturbing the neighbors. I suppose if I can't do it here I will continue looking for a place to rent or pay to use. But I wanted to get other's thoughts on the space and whether it would be something I could do. I haven't bought the forge yet or an anvil but am capable of doing so once I know I can safely do this in my garage.
Again, I am really looking forward. to getting in here and digging around to read articles. I am excited to meet people who are new and experienced with forging and make some friends in the process. Thanks everyone.
