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I Forge Iron

How did you get started blacksmithing


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I started with a no mortar brick rectangle.

I lined the bottom with iron ore rocks which I had an abundance of. These helped increase heat! I removed a couple bricks from the bottom run, inserted rebar, and hammered on more iron ore rocks with a claw hammer. I used wood for fuel and had no blower. I could get the metal to a good orange in that!

I didn't make anything and I didn't even know it was called blacksmithing.

It was just awsome to be able to play with fire and hot metal at 12 years old!

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Me I got started with a bonfire, a pear of lethermen pliers, a hammer, and a slabe of conreat at the age of 13. PS. this topic is to enceredeg all of you who are just starting that a lot of us started small.

i started the same way but i had a small anvil on the back of a machinest vice
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I started with a BBQ pit forge, hair dryer, channel lock pliers, cross pein hammer and a vise with a small anvil on the back. Th forge eventually got so warped that I dug a hole in the ground and put the forge in the hole. I had to kneel down to work the fire and ran the air line underground.

-Andrew

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I was fourteen when the family went out of state to a family reunion in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. It took place on the old Pratt family farmstead. We had the usual barbecue, croquet, darts, etc. The kids there were strangers to me, and for some reason, I didn't want to deal with them. I thought that they were pukes. Not far from the house and front yard stood a large barn. The farm had not been a working farm for at least twenty years, so there were no animals around.

I made my way toward the barn and around to one side where the large doors were located. They were locked, so I kept on going to the far side where there was a smaller entrance door. I tested the latch and slowly opened the door. I entered into what I now describe as a sanctum. The light within was dusky with a few of the sun's rays coming through sporadic cracks in the wall. The floor was straw covered, and my steps sent up tiny bits of straw and dust motes that became accentuated in the sparse sunlight.

When I looked to the left, I saw a complete blacksmith shop with a wooden floor. The shop was adjacent to the end wall and took up about one quarter of the total floor space of the barn. Nobody was around; the place was silent. I was transfixed. I approached the shop; it was just as it was left maybe twenty years ago, but the tools and equipment were much older. I first went to the horseshoeing box, and I handled the tools and nails. I then went to the anvil, forge, and vise. There was a drill press and there were shelves of unidentifiable hardware.

Time was suspended. I tried to imagine the tools in use. I'm not too sure how long I was away from the others, maybe an hour. I finally exited and found the family. They were curious as to my whereabouts, and I just told them that I went for a walk.

This ethereal experience set the tone for what would happen 13 years from that time. I finally called a farrier and got to apprentice and travel with him. This allowed me to escape from a desk job and fullfill a long ago dream. The dream expanded into my becoming a blacksmith and opening a blacksmithing school.

I found out much later that a psychologist named Abraham Maslow wrote about such episodes, and named them "peak experiences." They are often eidetic and if one pays attention, they can alter one's life, hopefully in a positive manner.

http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

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Used a BBQ chimney to anneal a file, making a wood lathe scraper. Saw how easy it was to get metal red hot. Cobbled together a brake drum forge, hammered on a 75 lb chunk of thick I-beam for a couple of years. Slowly gathering tools, anvil, post vise. Brake drum is in forge #4 now, about 6 years later.

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Back about '75, I was forging punches for silversmithing on a hardware store 10 pound anvil with a plumbers torch for heat. Had a afternoon class with Master Atar a little later and have been forging ever since. Lots harder to get any info back then.

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This is a funny story. I learned about blacksmithing from a video game called Ultima Online back in 1998 (and still play the game today). I was a grandmaster smith in the game, and that took months and months of in game play to acheive. It taught me how to mine, smelt ingots, and smith in a basic concept. Later I have a thirst for it in real life, and started learning. Right now I'm at a neophite level to it, but I am learning fast. I work with what I have, and 10 years from now, this will be my story as I'm living it right now.

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I started with sheet metal, mostly for cars. Heat works well for stretching, forming and shrinking.
It's not that big a jump to thicker metal, especially if you need a couple of door handles for a 46 Ford pickup.

I started with an oxy acetylene torch and a bench vise, but found an anvil, forge and some coal eventually.

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My son and I started when he got back from a tour in Iraq. He forges when he comes home to visit and I forge every time I get a chance. Weekends and days when I can squeak in a few hours during the week.

Have built a 55 forge w/brakedrum and love my addiction/obsession.

Look forward to when I can retire from my job and really get to "work".

Mark<><

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When I was in Korea I needed a hammer so I went out in the village and watched a blacksmith turn a car axle into a crosspene hammer which I still have and use. A year later when I got out of the Army I built a forge out of bed rails used a shop vac for a blower. I found plenty of coal along the railroad track behind my house. I paid $40 for my first anvil and it was so worn from sharpening plow shares that the only place I could work on it was the heel and horn.

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I broke a 130.00 knife field dressing a deer. When I call about the warranty I was honest and told the company that I had hit the back of there knife with a rock to break the pelvic bone. The very nice lady on the phone said "If you are going to do that you better start making your own knives". I laughed and told her to have a good day. I've been a weld fitter of 20 years. So I had some practice working with metal. Thinking back to high school metal shop, I remembered files were good steel so with a hunk of railroad track, a ballpein hammer, the family wood stove and a old file I pounded out a new knife! I showed the knife to my buddy and he said "what are you some kind of blacksmith" Then asked me to make him a fire poker and I did! Now I have a complete Smithy in the backyard and my neighbors hate me...but I'm happy and my wife loves the fact we (you all and myself) can make something out of nothing!! Thanks for listening TC

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hello, im 16, and want to start blacksmithing. i dont know where to start, and dont know what tools id need just to start out, how did everyone else start? what tools do you need just to start basic?
in the future, i hope to make cool swords and blades etc.

tips?

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How do you start? get some metal hot somehow and hit it with a hammer till you like the way it looks!

Really it is that easy... find your local blacksmith group and become a member, attend every class and meeting you can and start scounging tools... but until then build what ever make do thing you can to start pounding on some iron!

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I'll agree. I'd recommended reading things on here. Great guys to help you For sure. But the look at the book reviews That offer alot of info on getting started and will also give you plans on how to make the items you Need
I enjoyed the " THE BLACKSMITHS CRAFT' by Charles mcraven.
It is a great book and you can't hardly outgrow it.
You've came To the right place, here for advice and possible invites to someone's forge.
Just be careful And be smart about buying things. Until you know what your looking For. You can get started pretty cheap.
But I'd recommend reading all I could. Most authors devote a portion to their beginnings and what mistakes they made And how they found what They needed.
But the book.I.mentioned has alot for everyone.

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Hi Sylas. Well, by signing up on IFI you have made a start. Do a lot of reading on the forums here and ask questions. I also recomend that you cantact the Illinois Valley Blacksmith Association ( http://www.illinoisblacksmith.org/ ) to see if any members are located close to you. I live down by Lake Shelbyville and we have quite a few smiths in this general area. If you can't make contact with anyone up there, give me a PM (Private Message) on this site and I'll try to help you out. Good luck and welcome to IFI. :D

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Welcome! You have made a great choice by joining! I have just started out too and I'm 27, the best advice I have is read read read and then when you think you know where you might want to start with your plans read some more..... Really I'm not kidding. It seems like every time I think I have the rite idea about something I read an article on here and then realize that i was on the rite track but needed a little more info on how it actualy works. Lotta people here have very simple plans and those with more $ and experience have more elaborite plans. You will find just about everything here! Oh and if you don't get it just ask!!! And good luck.

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I would say you start out with a library card! Then go to your local library and check out "The Complete Modern Blacksmith"; ILL it if they don't have a copy.

Then start reading. Meanwhile look up the local ABANA Affiliate and start attending meetings---ask at one if there are anybody local to yourself---you can carpool to meetings and may get an invite to their shop as well.

Start collecting your kit---I once built a beginner's set up for under US$25 that included Forge, Blower, Anvil and basic tools (and the fanciest tool I used doing it was a 1/4" drill!)

With the weather up there I would think you could start with the reading and going to meetings and be ready to hit the ground running---once the ground wasn't so hard it will hit back!

It just occurred to me: look at a "one firebrick gas forge" or Micro forge that use a common plumber's propane torch for heat and can be used indoors with care---I used to use one down in my rock walled cement floored basement in the winter. Lots of small projects you can do with it---including hot forging of silver! and you don't have to wait until the weather warms!

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libraries and amazon are a very helpfull and cost affective way to get info i find. Internet has been very useful as well, can be harder to find things though.


as for local hammer in's does anyone know of any in the michigan/southern ontario area by chance? I never thought to ask here before for some odd reason...

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I'll tell you how I got to where I am because I don't consider myself a blacksmith at this point.

I suppose it started when I found out that metal gets soft when it's hot. I would pound nails that I found in our shop stove and took out to hit with whatever hammer that was at hand on the back of a large vise. I would flatten them or bend them and sometimes I would find a piece of metal and try to shape it into something else. I made a handy poker that way, but didn't think of being serious.

In the 90s I bought an ASO from Harbor Freight and heated files and other pieces of metal in a better shop stove, but no matter how hot I got them by just placing them in the fire they weren't very maliable and with the soft surface of the ASO I found I was making an impression of the file in the "anvil". So, I tried making knives by removing material from the metal, files mostly, and was not very happy with the results.

I have since moved to a house with no gararge let alone a shop, so I have been waiting until I could find a portable means of making knives. Well, I started out by collecting things to make a gas forge, and have a lot of them waiting for the day I can get organized and put them together. One "can forge" and one large oxygen cylinder forge. Then I had my ASO stollen a couple of years ago.

Throughout this lifelong adventure I have had children born, and a heart condition that caused other problems to evolve, and now that I have had an operation to fix my heart I'm ready to get to work. When I finally thought life was pretty much settled I bought my Hay Budden anvil and the news came. Now, we're expecting our forth child. So with money going everywhere but my pocket I'm still trying to do it on the cheap. You can follow my current projects in the solid fuel forge section and other places here that are appropriate.

I may be a blacksmith/gunsmith one day because my first love will always be guns, but I want to know how to take it from beginning to end and create a one of a kind gun. Making parts and knives as well as whatever will bring in money is all part of the whole picture. So will I be a blacksmith, or just a gunsmith that loves to have fun?

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