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I Forge Iron

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Posted

and only burned myself once when I grabbed the bar a little too close... I played around with a couple pieces of rebar and a railroad spike, To me the whole inside of the forge looked kinda orangish. I was hot enough to flatten the rebar but when I tried to upset it to make it a little thicker on one end, it only bent. Part of the problem might have been I was using a piece of 3/8" that was 30 inches long.

I just thought I would try using some really cheap material to try some techniques like drawing out, upsetting and flattening. I could flatten and square the rebar with no problem, I squared off the head of the rr spike but could not do alot more. I tried upsetting it but not sure if I did anything or just blunted the end.

Anyway, I had a few hours of fun once I got my forge going...(first time it fired up). I can see I am going to have to invest in some lessons to see how things are SUPPOSED to work rather than just read about them.

I am a little surprised that this site does not have a map or a way to search for people near you... If anybody is anywhere close to Shreveport, La give PM me.

Pat

Posted

Congrats on your first fire, Pat.

There's probably a local blacksmithing group you can get involved with to learn more. Going to a conference is good way to get some experience, too.

Posted

Hello PJames. Welcome to the obsession. Now you will be hooked. I am sure there are others in your area who can help out.
Good luck and post some pics of what you do.


Mitch

Posted

I agree with Joshua M, hooks are a great first project and I wouldn't be too worried about upsetting just yet...it can be a little frustrating at first. I was lucky enough to take a couple of beginner blacksmith classes to get me started and our first project was J hooks. Great first project that you can actually use! Best of luck to you!

Posted

i have never tryed to upset rebar but (if i am wrong please give me a virtual slap to the face) could the texture not complicate the upsetting prosess? and make sure you are starting with a peice that is cut at 90o or else it will just bend and become more frustrating the more you work with it

Posted
i have never tryed to upset rebar but (if i am wrong please give me a virtual slap to the face) could the texture not complicate the upsetting prosess? and make sure you are starting with a peice that is cut at 90o or else it will just bend and become more frustrating the more you work with it


No it doesn't or I have a way of working around that, but the texture shouldn't complicate the upsetting process at all. And you don't have to make sure you're piece is cut 90 degrees, it won't be afterwards and it will become close to 90 if it isn't 90 degrees. So it doesn't matter.

I wouldn't worry about it. Upsetting stock like 3/8 doesn't look easy because you have you make it straight all the time, but that just takes getting used to. Then you should be able to upset it like a pro.
Posted

I'm starting out too. I started messing around with it last year, but didn't really start devoting time to it until last month. I've been making some forge tools and practicing with RR spikes mostly. I live just outside of Baton Rouge, and had to do some digging to find anyone who still Smiths.

Oldnrusty hosts open forge sessions at his shop, Arnold and Anvil, every Saturday morning in baton rouge. He's the only local pro smith I know of around here doing anything like that.

Join GCBA. Meetings and classes are held monthly in Covington at Buddy's shop. Its an offical ABANA chapter.

I just joined LAMA. They have monthly meetings also.

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