new to the whole forging metal process. forgive the newbie question.
so far my experience is hammering a peace of hot rebar over a track.. not even a railroad track at that. one for a overhead crane deal found in a lot of warehouses.

i thought any metal that would bend easily would forge easy. so.. i guss that didnt work out as well as planed. so i was told get start with softer metal. not exactly sure how i can tell. my best guess would be harder metal has a higher *ping* when you hit it with a hammer. most tool metals would be hard. and so i decided to make another trip to the scrap yard. i picked up a 40 pound chunk of steel.

im hoping this will help. also picked up some peaces of scrap that was flexible ish and im hoping to be softer then rebar. cant realy tell by the metals appearance. at least not that im aware of. any suggestions or tips would be much appreciated.

would the new peace of metal be better then that peace of track. or is the curved part of it make it not so well?
the guy at the junkyard sed it was tool steel. assuming that is steel that is used for making tools/chisles an such so assuming its up to take a beating

Danz409,
That could work as a anvil. what does the other side look like? Sometimes when you don't know the material you are forging it can be hard. Maybe try going to a fab shop and see if you can get some of there throw away. They can usually tell you the material.
Gaylan
Thanks for the comment on my snake!!

Ok , a couple of questions first , what are you using to heat your rebar , what colour are you heating it too
Dull red & u'll have trouble moving metal ,, bright red / yellow & it'll move everywhere

Hope this helps


Dale Russell

Edited August 25, 200916 yr by Dale Russell
can't spell

im using a home made break drum forge and with wood i can barely get it red even. with charcoal i can get it as hot as a mid orange

What size is your drum, and what are you using for a blower. I used a brake drum forge for over a year. Some of that time was charcoal and I had to be carefull not to burn the steel. It would get it as hot as I wanted!

Dave

for my forge this is it, (tried to put on some clay today to make the surface even with the drum to make it easier to add flue. but i might take that back off. its cracking a lot more then expected)

as for the surface of the anvil i just finished cleaning that up. here is that

On your anvil: clean up a side too, you need a face only a little bigger than your hammer face. It also helps to have more metal UNDER the hammer. Any face can work well though. It looks like you have some good edges too, close to sharp corners and a few let off quite a bit. Those two holes will be nice when you get to punching and may serve as tool holders too. The curved surfaces may be nice for sinking metal into to make bowls and spoons.

Don't get rid of your track either, it helps to have variety. You can also grind swage shapes into it if you need.

Good score.
Phil

Don't worry about the cracks in your forge's clay. Let it dry then fill them with more clay and you will never remember they were there.

As for your heat problem. Try to locate some charcoal, in the States it appears to be easily sourced as BBQ charcoal. Give that a go but I suspect that the pipe you have coming from your hairdryer is too small and it is restricting your air flow.

Anyway, for a start try some charcoal then we can look at the hardware.

I would be surprised if we can't turn that into a metal burner.

I highly recommend seeing if your area has a wholesale source for structural steel, which is mild steel. Working with rebar and scrap when I started out was very frustrating and time consuming. Using new steel is much easier and more fun, especially when starting out.

To use that forge with *chunk* charcoal NOT BRIQUETTES! I would place a fire brick on either side of the firepot so I could get a deeper fire I could slide work through.

Charcoal doesn't take much air to get it HOT!

thanks for the tip! i was useing reguler BBQ-etts you get at the store. i also just recently put the clay on the forge and planed on putting something else around it to get a nice mound going

few new things added to my outdoor workshop. im realy getting the thought i need to get a small shed or leanto to put this stuff under.
peaces of steal i got yesterday and today. unforitly its getting to late to do much of anything, so ill play around with it tommarow. still seem to be haveing a hard time trying to find some coal around here...

home depo: nobody konws where to find any
tractor supply: people konw where you use to get some
long list of stove stores: eather didnt sell or was closed

as being one of the leading steel producers in the US id figure finding some good ole forgeing fule would be easy... i couldnt imagen for people in remote areas.

anyway here is a look at my small stash

I don't know if there's anyone on this list in your area but there is a list of coal suppliers being compiled on this site.....

http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f7/building-coal-supplier-list-6475/

I used briquettes when I first started with a thrift store hair dryer for a blower and I could get 1/4" stock hot enough but nothing bigger. I don't know about your area but in SC you can find REAL charcoal at Ace Hardware, Wal-Mart, & some grocery stores. "Royal Oak" is the brand I see the most down here. I haven't had much luck with it but that's just me...I know others who like it. You can also make your own. Do a search and you can probably find the directions. I've never tried it so I don't know.

I walk the railroad tracks (beware, because technically this is trespassing) and pick up coal that has spilled from the train cars. It usually takes a lot of excercise to pick up enough for a day of forging but every now and then I get lucky. Of course there will also be spikes, etc...again, BEWARE, because not only is this trespassing but picking up spikes, etc is stealing railroad property. I don't know how often someone actually gets in trouble but you should be aware that it is a possibilty. I NEVER go near where there's a train sitting on the track. They REALLY frown upon you "snooping" around the cars...it's just asking for trouble.

Everybody has there own school of thought on how to start and what to start with, etc. I started with small stock...1/4-3/8". I got antzy and wanted to make a RR spike knife and found it considerbly harder than working with the smaller stock. Especially while using inadequate fuel. I went back to the smaller stock and felt like I learned soooooo much more about how metal moves, etc Just my 2 cents worth

Best of luck to ya!

woops!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i started a thread trying to get a list of supplyers... guss thats un-needed now. link is here. if any admins see this message please dealte it

Edited August 30, 200916 yr by Danz409

If you check around I would guess there are some blacksmiths not too far away from you, they could be a great resource and even supply you with material. you are on the right track, keep it up, its a whole lot of fun.

I suggest you read this for the anvil, since you seem to be working on a horizontally placed RR.
RR-rail Anvils : Making anvils from Rail Road Rail