Paradigm11

Great input again. I'm sending a positive trend on here I have created the list for everything I'd need and it is ~$600 for the wood, haven't accounted for the roofing yet. An additional $800 in shiplap for siding. As for snow load, that's one of the adjustments I was thinking of. I'm in central NH and we get a decent amount of snow. This plan has the roof has a 2.5:12 pitch. Which in think is enough. The shed's opening will be mostly shielded by my house and the angle will be dumping the snow off of it away from any area I ever really go to.

Thanks for all the replies! I've already looked into the building codes and for myself I'm good without a permit. It just has to be under 200 square feet and a detached structure. It can be on posts on pilings. A real foundation would require a permit. I don't need to worry about a setback either, but I'm well past that anyway. My town actually has a page dedicated to this question! I might take a look at the carport option, that seems like it might be a good solution. I was thinking about whipping up something roughly like the attached image and just using some galvanized corrugated metal for the roof and siding. Attach it to some skids that sit on some of those 4x4 post spikes. I actually tried driving one of those into the ground today as a proof of concept and I actually need to make a lever out of some thick steel stock, some firewood and my car jack to get it back out, so I'm confident 4-6 of those would make sure it doesn't move anywhere unwanted. Decisions, decisions. Only think I've actually nailed down so far is where I want it haha.

Its situated on a hilltop and the roof will cover most of it so I'm not INCREDIBLY concerned there, but yeah if if ends up being sloppy I definitely plan to drop some crushed stone. This is very much a "phase one" kind of thing.

Ive got a small setup of a forge cart on casters, a bench in a carport and my anvil on a stump. Currently it's all sharing space with my lawnmower, gardening stuff, landscaping stuff, etc. Kinda crowded. When I want to do some work it's about an hour of shuffling stuff around and setting things up outside in my driveway. Longer with the teardown because I have to wait for things to cool. Also means I can only work on nice days. I'm planning on making basically a slanted roof on 4x4s, roughly 10x12. My goal is to have something that I can easily move or adjust if needed. I've a couple ideas, but basically I plan to have 2 walls and the other 2 open and have the anvil kitty cornered in the walls to catch spark spray when forge welding. The floor is just going to be stamped down churned up earth. The goal is to be able to leave everything in place and be able to work in the rain and snow. I work with coke and my forge has a hood but no chimney. Its designed to have one but since I'm working outside and moving it, have it off.

Understood, I thought as much. Luckily, I actually really enjoy making nails. I prefer people not beating around the bush anyway haha.

I appreciate the info!

Yep, just read that in the READ FIRST post (oops!). Trying to figure out where to put that info. As for what I want to make, it varies widely. I bought a house a few years ago and it's an old 1840s farmhouse with the original floors so I've been trying to make things by hand when needed to add to the aesthetic. Outside of utilitarian brackets, repairing metal, nails, etc, I do like making hooks and latches eventually would like to replace all of our interior door hardware with custom stuff. I found forge welding in my class very challenging but rewarding and exciting. My long-term goals are to be able to make friends and family nice, utilitarian stuff. I'd love to make my dad a wood axe, I'd love to make my d&d group swords or axes. I'd love to be able to make my uncle arrowheads for hunting. I just want to be generally good at metalworking lol. I plan to have this as a hobby for decades and I'm extremely patient.

I'm learning as I go pretty blindly. I was looking to do SOMETHING this weekend so I bought a chunk of junk to play with. I'd read that splitting wedges were hardened and you can anneal harden metal to make it workable again so I said "why not" and tried. I'd read that you soak the hardened metal at (some temp, cherry red they suggested) for an hour for each 1" and then cool it slowly. I might be entirely wrong. Is there a way to salvage it? I'm not concerned about that chunk of metal, but it'd be good to know when to call it quits for the future.

Just popping in to say hello I'm 33 and I live in New Hampshire. Been in love the idea of blacksmithing most of my life and finally have the time and space to explore it. I've taken a class and plan to take another, but I've purchased a small cart coal forge and a small (75-100lb?) anvil and have been having a grand ole time absolutely destroying perfectly good metal. I'm sure I'll be asking a lot of questions, please be patient. I make up a lot of my failings with enthusiasm and the good fortune to have a friendly neighbor with access to a lot of scrap metal.

Hi all! I did a class a couple years ago and liked it enough to get a small forge off of craigslist and various homeownership realities prevented me from using it until now. Anyway, I've only worked with mild steel but I said screw it and just try (and fail) with higher carbon steel. I bought a splitting wedge from an antique store and I've read that they are hardened so I tried annealing it and halfway through it... Broke in half? I just kept heating them as I read (a nice bright orange for about 90 min) and they're currently cooling. Question is why would it split in half? How can I tell if its annealed correctly? There's so much info out there. It's overwhelming and it's hard to see what's real and what's not. I can't even get a good lock on what temp, just color. My goal is to make an axe, currently. I don't really care about ruining anything, I'm trying to learn by screwing up. I've got a solid source of metal from my neighbor. I'm almost positive it's going to be a mess that I junk, but the best way to learn is to try. At least that's how I learn. Added some pics below. The chunks on the vice are after annealing (theoretically). Any advice or insights are welcome. https://imgur.com/OecYB7A