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I Forge Iron

How did you get started blacksmithing


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Great advice by everyone on here. But just get to work. You Don't need a PhD to get started. Get your metal hot. And a make shift anvil and roll on. The research And chats are great. But until you can get your forge going. Practice on modeling clay. To get a idea of how to displace the metal. U read That on here. And made since. If a person didn't have all he needed yet.

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Welcome and glad to see your getting started early in life.
I highly recommend Wayne Goddards 'The $50.00 knife shop' Even if you dont plan on making knives, its a good book for the beginner and has a 'bare basics' section in one of the chapters.

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  • 1 month later...

Im just getting started at age 31. I've been pipe fitting, welding, brazing and the such since i was 14yrs old but i've been away from metal work for a few yrs now after having persued a career in nursing. Anyways, my Pops recently picked up leather working and started making knife sheaths, pistol holsters, ect and was trying his hand at making handles for cheap stamped blades he baught online. well i needed a hobby as i felt my hands have been idleing for to long and i missed metal working. So i started reading up on blacksmithing and blade making in particular and decided i would give it a go. I built my first brake drum forge last weekend after visiting several brake and tire shops to obtain a couple old brake drums. The rest of the material was salvaged from scrap piles belonging to family. My Pops has a mig welder that i welded everything up with. I'm glad to note that the entire undertaking cost me absolutely NOTHING except a little time and effort on my part. My Pops had a section of old RR track that i cut a section of for an anvil and i even found an old squirrel cage style fan while cleaning out my back shed that works beautifully as a blower after a fashion. I even have old anvil coming my way tomorrow thanks to a colleague i work with. Again NO charge. I don't know what kind of shape it's in but it's free and i'll take it. For those Newbies like me just starting out, talk to EVERYONE when you are starting out. You never know who will turn up with something u might need. I'd just like to say that so far this undertaking has been alot of fun for me and i appreciate all the great information and/or advice i have found on this site. Thanks All!!

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not being fitted for a "real" job after military servise, I fell into welding and fabrication at a small shop. Then one day we were engaged in shop clean-up, and against a wall covered in scrap plate, was an ANVIL! I told foreman I wanted that thing, he say," ok give ME fifty bucks," the start of my obsession, Oh, that and Alex Bealers book. that was 1971.

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The university was offering a non-credit course in blacksmithing at a local smith's shop, back over 37 years ago. About 6 of us shared one sheet-metal forge. The cap at the end of a piece of black-pipe had a slit cut in it, with the air supplied by an old hand-held hair dryer with the heating element removed.

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I am a tool-maker, but left the field to make a higher wage as a mill-wright, so I got into blacksmithing because I missed making things badly. My first set-up was a brake drum rig, then I made one from a 55 gallon drum cut in half length ways with the fire pot on one end and harth of sorts on the other. An old vaccum cleaner motor was/is the blower for both, a piece of railroad track for an anvil, and I cut down a three pound engineers hammer to make a cross-pein. Didnt have tongs I just welded a piece of rebar to what ever I was making and held on with that. A few weeks of that and I made the simplest pair of tongs that could possibly be made. A year later and I just finished my first gas forge, and still use the homemade hammer more than any others. If I learned anything about getting started uit was this. There will be lots of old grumps that say dont mess with this or that cause they are junk, or they wont work............ thats both true and a bunch of crap atr the same time, The nicer your stuff the easier some jobs will be, but the first forge was a dirt hole with a hollow stick..... the first anvil was probaly a rock......... just get started with what ever is convenient and work on the niceties later. It would be a shame to let not having the perfect set-up stop you from getting started.

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I've been a welder/machinist/mechanic most of my life. One of my buddies (foaming mug forge) and I started making jewelry last year. We progressed from beading to smithing copper and aluminum on small steel plates I made up. A while ago we were talking and decided to build a forge. We built a brake drum forge, found an old seized up blower, and started moving some metal. Mostly just practicing fullering and shaping and tapering so far, but I have made some Hooks I call boot-pullers for pulling on your boots, and a few hooks for hanging stuff on. We went to the Hammer-in in Bryan ,Tx yesterday and I was really blown away. It was inspiring and I am hoping to move into door pulls and door knockers next.

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In 1987 while in the Marine Corps I was living in the town of Jacksonville NC. I had read every book I could find on blacksmithing. A museum in Richland, the next town over, had a great curator, Albert Potts. He would bring in folk artists on Sunday afternoons to do demonstrations. One cold and icy Sunday, I read in the paper that he was going to have a blacksmith at the museum demonstrating civil war pieces. When I arrived there were about six others who had also braved the cold. Shawn, the blacksmith was just lighting off his forge. He had a bellows and all his equipment was homemade. He did his demo in an hour then everyone else left. I didn’t. I had tons of questions. He looked at me and said I could stand there all day and you could ask questions but instead he handed me a piece of steel and commented, “you are only going to learn this by doing it”. So I started hammering and we ended up talking for two hours. He asked me why I wanted to blacksmith. That was simple. I wanted a set of ice carving chisels. I explained that I was a trained chef with a degree from Johnson and Wales University and unwilling to pay thousands of dollars for something I felt that I could make. I helped Shawn pack up and I decided to just go home and do it.

I searched flea markets for tools and found a good vice and a hammer. I built my forge and bellows. I drove to Wilmington, NC and bought my first bags of coal. So Saturday morning came I had worked to do I needed tools for the forge a shovel, poker, rake and water can. Well with in an hour the wooden arm on the bellows broke. Not giving up I made one out of steel lifting the bottom of the bellows by hand I forged my first Eye then forged welded it. Feeling good yes I can do this. So now I could start on my list.

Then something strange happened. My neighbor Derwood came over. “What do you think you’re doing”, he asked. “I am blacksmithing”. “No, you are doing it all wrong”, he said. Then he picked up my rake and started pulling my fire apart. “It’s ok. You can light it up again now get in my truck”. Now Derwood was in his 90’s and I had a lot of respect for him. He was still cutting his own fire wood to heat his house. Down the road we went, off the main road and onto a dirt road through woods which felt like forever. The woods cleared and there were thousands of acres of corn. We pulled up to an old tobacco barn. “See that stand of trees over there? That is where I was born. The house bunted down years ago”. In the barn we went. “She’s here somewhere”, he proclaimed, “If you can pick her up you can have her”! There she was in a corner under a tarp… an anvil, battered, chipped and old. I walked over and wrapped my arms around her and off we went. She was now mine and I hers. Years later I found out where the anvil had come from. Derwood told me he had received it from the great great grandson of John Ford the first blacksmith in Onslow County, NC in 1774. After a lot of research I found out it was made by Mouse Hole Forge. I tended to the abuse she had suffered over the years and to this day she still serves me well.

A few years later I moved to Chapel Hill, NC to take over as Executive Chef of UNC Hospitals. This is where I met George Berrett of Storybrook Metal Shop. We became friends and I would watch what he was producing and go home and make the elements I had seen in his shop. Every time I lit off my forge I had work for hire from fixing farm equipment to making custom pieces for people.

In 1999 I moved to Sarasota, FL. I started working for the Golden Apple Dinner Theatre as the Technical Director. I set up my shop and got my first big commission. The Venice Cathedral needed a fence for a cemetery. I installed it on the morning of 9/11. Since then I have produced pieces for collectors and worked with members of the Histicorial Society recreating and expanding existing pieces from old Sarasota. I’ve also had pieces commissioned by a Japanese cruse line and Bush Gardens of Tampa.

I blacksmith for the love of the art. Who would have thought from that cold North Carolina day I would find my self 20 years later under an old oak tree in 90 degree weather with 90 percent humidity listening to that old anvil ring and boy does she sing.

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  • 9 years later...

Welcome aboard Jim, glad to have you. If you put your general location in the header you  might be surprised how many  members live within visiting distance.

A good thing to remember reading Iforge threads is to look at the posting date of posts you wish to reply to. For example the post you're replying to is dated 01/05 2011.

Don't sweat it there's a learning curve to the forum and it changes now and then.

 Frosty The Lucky.

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I was looking for a bench vise on the CL and saw a post vise for $200. It took a couple month to come down to a $100 so I bought for grins. 
 

did a little youtube research (thanks Torbjorn and Joey). Thought I would try a Lively washtub forge, forged a piece of rebar and was so hooked that 3 years later I have a complete smithy. Its all I think about :-)

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Well, since this thread has been resurrected, I'll put my 2 cents worth in. 

  I had been in the bodyshop business for about 25-30 years. Started out doing collision repair, and ended up doing restorations, and custom work. So I had a little bit of experience moving steel with a hammer, and "anvil" (dolly).  I prided myself on being able to make a piece of sheet metal do what I wanted it to with no machines. Just hammer, and dolly, or wooden bucks.  About the closest I got to a machine to work metal was a jig I made to fabricate model A Ford drip rail.   About 6 years ago, I decided that I'd had enough of dealing with folks who want a $100k job for $100. And started framing houses.  I don't know what got me wanting to learn forging techniques but I needed to fill my time, and learn something new at the same time.  So I built a "forge" from a half water heater, and burned charcoal in it.  My "anvil" was a couple of 1/2" steel plates welded together, on top of a stump. I fooled around with that learning about moving hot steel with scraps of rebar. Drawing tapers, and whatnot, then I decided to make something out of a hardenable steel. So I made a letter opener out of a bearing race.  It came out nicely.  Gave it to my Dad for this past Christmas.  I then found at the scrap yard a more suitable "anvil" ,  a chunk of steel, about 5 feet long, 2" thick, and 8" wide.  about 240 pounds worth.  I made a 100 pounder out of it, and have plenty left over for other things.  Built a new forge, to burn coal, and haven't looked back.  I bang on hot steel every chance I get. Mostly making the tools I need to make things with. :rolleyes:

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I've kind of read through this thread for awhile... it kind of piqued my interest. Anyways... here's my take.

I've always been interested in the old school methods. I grew up with a father who was a master mechanic... so my first introduction to metal was of the four wheeled variety.

I got into anything and everything mechanical, and artistic. Took wood shop in school every year I could, and excelled in it. Used to love watching bruce lee, jackie chan, and the old school martial arts movies which were very popular when i was a kid. That got me interested in knives and weapons.

Later, as I got older... very late teens.... my car love blossomed into restoration/repair, and like bluerooster- I learned to move and push metal by hand and hammer- dolly working body panels and replacing them, which led to learning welding, brazing and soldering.

Started making knives for friends and family using- other than forged methods when was in my 20's-on and learned more about tempering and treating metals as I worked in a heat treat foundry, and then an aluminum casting foundry in michigan.

I went into the us army at 24 yrs old... and stationed in Europe,  I saw and toured a blacksmith shop in germany. It fueled my interest again... but I couldn't practice much of anything craft-wise while on duty, missions and deployments... let alone set up a shop in government housing... lol.

Now, after all these years at 47 years old... I'm beginning to learn and do what I'd been interested in for so long. Like so many others, it was knives that got me into it... but, I want to be able to do more than just blades... to be able to make what I need. I love that concept of self reliance. And, finally having a place of my own to do what I want- I've slowly started acquiring the tools and trying my hand... it's still slow, but steady.

I've always said that I know a little about alot of things... as I picked up many different skills over the years... but I don't know everything- about anything!

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My story happens over a few decades,  about 30 years ago I was given an anvil by our landlord for our workshop. It ended up in my parents garden, a couple of years later my dad and me found a swage block buried in the dirt at a quarry that we were working at and they said we could keep it. That also ended up in my parents garden. 

My dad always planned to build a forge when he retired. He died in 2006 6 month before retiring and I decided to build a forge "when I got time" by 2016 nothing had happened but the Mrs got me a days course with a Smith and I loved it, no room for my own set up though but I did go on 3 more courses then in 2018 I finally got round to sorting things out. 

I had a spare 10x10 storage container at work so I put a bench, my anvil and a forge I bought in it, I soon discovered its a lot harder than it is when you have a real Smith around on a course but it's excellent. 

I have yet to fire it up this year though,  pre covid 19 I thought I was too busy, since the lockdown started in the UK at the end of March I have been mentally busy. 

I must try make time to light the fire, my dad died at 60 with lots of plans he wanted to do when he retired, I'm 48, life is short so best crack on whilst I can. 

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My journey started when I was 10, I wanted to work with my hands and asked my dad if I could go into the shop and hit some nails into some wood (I wanted to make a wood box). To my surprise he said yes, for the next couple of years I did various wood projects and started to build a place to work with the help of my dad and brother. 

As I got older I had a fascination in knives, especially since by cousin had a nice collection he liked to show me. Logically I made a trip to the local steel supplier and picked up a piece of mild steel. Not knowing any better I spent countless days and nights using a hack saw and files to shape the blade. After the rough product got an edge on it, I was quick to be disappointed on the quality of the blade. I did my research and discovered the wonders of heat treatment. Being to stubborn to buy quality steel, or maybe to ignorant, I spent all my free time making stock removal blades and "SSO"s (sword shaped objects) ultimately knowing that they would be nothing but wall hangers. 

Finally I took the first steps and built a super simple and inefficient Gasser, then another, and then finally one that actually could get to an orange heat. I spent most of my time upgrading and improving this forge until I melted by thermocouple at 2500 degrees. Still not having hammered anything and only heating up steel and looking at it happily, I decided to move closer to metal work and converted my forge into a foundry. I made lots of casts and made different alloys. But there still was a need to hammer... :D

Finally I made a DIY anvil (it was an abomination) and started to forge for real, I was completely hooked and sooner rather than later I was able to pick up a super sweet 182 pound Peter Wright (yes, it is marked exactly as 182). Every since then I have researched and forged everything making tools and other cool fancy metalwork. My Great Great Grandfather and Great Grandfather where both blacksmiths, apparently the bug skips a few generations. I have been blessed enough to have been gifted and found some great tools that I'll be using for the rest of my life.

- Mark

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My intro to blacksmithing as a child was listening to my grandfather’s exploits about his Army deployment with Gen. Blackjack Pershing in the Mexican campaign, chasing Poncho Villa around the southwest. He was a blacksmith that was reassigned as a mechanic when the Army was transitioning to mechanization from mules & horses.

Jump forward several decades, when we would come to the Ozark’s and visit Silver Dollar City in Branson MO. There was a working blacksmith there name who’s was Tiny Robinson (if I recall) and any time my wife would look for me she knew where to look. I remember one time he was demonstrating how to make a Russian wrapped rose and it fascinated me how he could make the metal move into a beautiful rose.

Now jump to 1984 when I was a rookie police officer working the midnight shift. There was a working blacksmith shop in the town. One morning I saw a red glow coming from one of the windows and thought someone had broken into the shop or there was a fire starting. Well while checking it out it was a fire and the blacksmith was just starting his day firing up the forge.

Hence my introduction to my mentor Isaac (Ike) Doss. We seemed to hit it off right away and I learned he was a master smith with some of his work in the Smithsonian Institute and he had given many demonstrations there in his younger days. He was 84 at that time and still working six days a week. He would walk carrying his lunch box, the six blocks from home to the shop. He taught me how to build and maintain a coal fire and a lot of basics of blacksmithing. He also told me how to make my own bottom blast coal forge, which I still use to this day.

Now comes the hard part. One morning I was detailed to a traffic accident involving a pedestrian on the City Square. I immediately saw it was Ike who had been hit and EMS arrived at the same time. Ike never recovered from his injuries and passed away in 1991. For a lot of years, I didn’t have the heart to fire up my forge. Then one day I needed a part for my old tractor and forged it with some of the knowledge he hammered into my head. That along with my wife becoming interested in blacksmithing, there is again coal smoke on the mountain.

 

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Great stories here. 

So here goes. It was my therapist, but the interest goes back much much further than that. A few years ago i was in a pretty bad place. My mental problems were spiraling out of control and i was drinking pretty heavily. Not to mention my nightly excursions to the bad side of town to get a fix. I am not proud of what i did but i am not embarrassed at all. I have laid out what i went through at NA meetings and tried and help many and actually helped a few get off drugs. I do not mind talking about it and am very proud of being clean for 12 years now. But i digress, while talking to my therapist i was saying that i was getting the itch again when she said i needed a hobby (in short, it was a little more wordy than that). I have always been good at working with my hands and was to broke to do something like restore another car. This also around the same time that FIF came on the TV. This brings me to long time interest here. I have always found blacksmithing fascinating. We had a forge in the barn when i was a kid and i remember my grandpa out there repairing tools or making something he needed or what ever. My grandpa could pound metal but was not a blacksmith, carpenter by trade, but living on a dirt poor farm there is many skills that you have to pick up. As a kid i would go into granpas shop and heat nails with a propane torch and make little knives out of them or arrow heads using the top of the jaws of the post vice for an anvil (thats the same vice i use today) As a teenager i was into D&D and wanted to make a sword. That never came about, but i did stock removal of a very lame looking short sword. Also made a breast plate, sheild, and helmet out of sheet metal, but again i had no idea what i was doing but i tried. In high school i took metal shop and 2 of our projects were forging a cold chisel and a screw driver, that is the first 2 things i actually made that were functional. Come a few years later when i was studying martial arts i started learning sword and spear form. Which led to more interest in the craftsmanship of these weapons. So to sum it all up while watching FIF i said to myself that dont look to difficult i can do that. Researched building a forge and getting an anvil and before long i had a working side blast charcoal forge and a nice size piece of steel to beat metal on. After making a couple knife shaped objects i discovered it was not bladesmithing i wanted to do but make many different things form metal.  

And now you know, know why sometimes my posts may seem a little dis jointed and rambling sometimes. This old, crazy, mind melted guy sometimes just has trouble getting thoughts into words. 

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