hello, i am considering buying this forge and anvil. all the tools shown come with it as well, and i'm told everything works fine. so could you guys tell me if its a good deal or not? thanks,
oh and here's the link:
http://seattle.craigslist.org/kit/tls/2892397287.html

If the craftsmanship of the tools is any indication, then it might be a good deal. If you can then you might want to go take a better look at that forge, you can't really see it very well and there are some problems you need to look out for. If it needs to be relined or if the bricks are all broken then that could cost a little bit. $175 is a decent price for just the forge if it performs as he says it does, even if it needs to be relined. I would jump on it, after I looked at everything.

The anvil isn't oriented properly to maximize the blow of the hammer. It should be vertical rather than horizontal, and you'll get a lot of ringing as a result. Not bad for making knives, but most knife work doesn't require a lot of forging.

The forge look to be a blown forge, but the chamber doesn't look very large. This isn't a bad thing if you're just starting out, though. You could make a lot of hooks, chisels, knives, etc in a forge that size.

The tooling he has looks to be well built.

Overall, I'd suggest that you go for it. If you don't have any kit, this looks to be a good starter set up. You can't buy a forge for $175 from any of the commercial sources and you'd need at least $50 in material to make your own. The tools can be used for a lot of different jobs, not just knives.

As long as you're happy with the purchase, I don't see how you could go wrong.

Worth it if you don't have any of that stuff, and you are in a hurry to get started. Even if you don't need the tongs, it's probably worth it. If you have either forge or anvil or both, you might want to just pick up what you need separately. Or if you have enough patience to scrounge, you can wait. There is a similar deal, with coal forge and RR track anvil in my area for $500.