what got you into blacksmithing?

[jgirard13]

I'm sure there's a thread on here somewhere on this topic but I do my interwebbing from my junk smartphone and it takes to long to go through all the threads. I love to know how ppl get started in blacksmithing or other forms of metal work. I started off as an hvac installer around 18 yrs old banging ductwork them fabbing it, from there at around 23 my dad wanted to know if I wanted to learn to weld and after making some horrible beads with his welder I was hooked and within 2 weeks got a job arc welding corrals and ranch fencing. Within a yr I was working in a general welding/Fab shop making gates and welding in kings architectural prefab scrolls (ugly). About 5 yrs ago I moved across state and got a job at another welding shop doing the same thing but this shop has a blacksmithing setup and forged its own parts, I was hooked. Within a yr I made my own coal forge and pumped out the tools to forge whatever I wanted. I'm 33 now and I know ill be doing this till my body can't do it anymore.

[JimsShip]

My Pop was a traditional tin knocker himself, and I spent many years in the tin shop making ducts. I was looking to take a welding class and my wife found a blacksmithing class held at The Farmer's Museum in Cooperstown, NY so she signed me up for the weekend introductory course.(Never did find out how to weld anything without a forge!) Found this site recommended by the instructor and have been hooked ever since. I only wish I could find time and space to do all the things i've read about here!

[andys MQ]

I was reading a book on carpentry, specifically about making barrels and chests. I was about 15 then. It had a section in it about making your own hinges and clasps and stuff. I then when and got books on blacksmithing.
Started buying anything I though I might need built a brick forge 1m x1m in an old dairy that was out the back. Then I moved before I got to use any of it xxxx it.

Took an apprenticeship as a boiler maker ( fabricator) when I was 18, and have finally now at 27 built another forge that I am actually using.
What's that like a 12 year journey.

[rustyanchor]

I did a good bit of wood working and eventually got frustrated with glue and slipping joints. It took so long for the glue to set up and I would usually knock a joint out of alignment before it had set.

I wanted to learn to weld and I figured out that welding was like instant set glue, so I started sticking metal together, then I wanted to bend metal, so I needed an anvil, then a forge, and so it went.  

For me, metal is much more forgiving than wood, I can reheat and rebend if I don't like my first few attempts, if I cut short I can add a little length, if I need a thicker piece I can make a thicker piece.

I am still not very good at metal working but I enjoy it and others seem to like what I make.

[ptree]

At 4 years old a historic house museum at the end of our block in Louisville Ky built a blacksmiths shop. They did not have a fence and so I hung out in that shop my every waking moment I could until sadly school started for me and then I had only summers. I was the perfect size to be a bellows boy and so they had me pull the bellows and other stuff a blacksmiths son would have done at that age. We moved away when I was in the third grade. I was into making anything and since my Dad had a basement shop I used tools. When I went into the Army the craft shop at Redstone arsenal had a stone cutting shop so I learned to cut and polish stone as I trained in missile maint. Once assigned to Germany the craft shop had no stone cutting shop but did have a jewlers shop and there I piddled with making jewelery. Not many were interested and the German Master who was teaching for the ARMY adopted me and did a non-official apprenticeship for me. Learned precision investment casting, stone setting and fabrication.

Came home to go to college and found no outlet for the jewels and so that dwindled except for making for family. I entered engineering school, and then moved to engineering technology school and as a co-op started at Westinghouse Air Brake Co (WABCO) where I worked in the R&D lab as a tester. A maint man, tired of arc welding things for me taught me to weld:) I was not good:)

After Graduation I went to work for the Henry Vogt Machine Co in Louisville Ky, a 42 acre playgroud of shop for a techno-freak such as myself. I was again in the R&D labs, and again often needed stuff welded for test set-ups and to help troubleshoot production processes that needed welding so VOGT sent me to night school to welders classes and i learned to be a better welder:) Got lots of practice at work.

In about 1990, at about 30 years old a neighbor bought a forge and anvil at a farm action and was trying hard to do something and I smelled the smoke. I walked over and noticed he had huge chuck coal about 8" chunks and it was stoker coal, I crushed some down built a usable fire from memory as a 9 year old and made an S hook. He was astounded and we played with his set-up for about a year. I found an anvil and built a forge about the time he moved away and have steadily progressed.

At work VOGT had a city block sized steam drop hammer shop and I did spend lots of time there, and when VOGT was sold out I eneded up at an axle shop that used mechanical upset forging machines. So I have worked 25 years in factories that were industrial forge shops as well as machining and welding etc. For the last 7 years in a factory that considers 0.044" thick strip steel heavy. I miss the heavy forging but not the environment of dirty, dangerous blistering hot in the summer and frost your rear off in the winter. I miss the crews of people I worked with as well, but will miss the crew I work with now if I move yet again.

 

After working in a world of everything measured with micrometers and the like, it is stress relieving to work to the accuracy of my hand and eye.

[Ridgewayforge]

I saw metal being heated for the first time in the Boy Scouts at Philmont. I didn't think too much of it at the time. Later, I would make fires in my back yard, and I loved to make the fire as hot as I could. I would fan the fire until it was too hot to get near. One day I thought to myself, "Why don't I see what happens when I put a Railroad Spike into the fire?" I did, and it came out glowing red. (I used ice tongs to pull it out of the fire!) Naturally, I considered hitting it with a hammer. I aquired a 4 lb sledge and went to work. At that time, nothing happened of any consequence. But I loved the glowing metal. so was hooked. I read online about blacksmithing and started looking into it in a big way, eventually finding this site. I learned and read and read some more, and finally bought by Champion 400 blower last summer, and have been advancing ever since. I love it. I am hooked for life, and am seeking to gain the skills and abilities to make me a master smith. That is my goal.

[Clodbuster]

Good topic - it's interesting to hear the paths that bring people into this.  Mine is kind of roundabout.

 

I grew up on a farm and have been familiar with fabrication and welding since I was a kid.  Also could do rough carpentry, plumbing, electrical, mechanical repairs and similar things.  Farmers tend to be jacks of all trades... but masters of none.

 

So I did lots of basic fabrication and repairs but never forged anything other than one failed cold chisel in high school metal shop.  Our teacher didn't know what the heck he was doing - the school had a nice propane forge but we used it only once - on the day we forged chisels.  We drew out and ground the chisel and then "tempered" it by holding it rigidly in cold water - the first time I used it at home it broke at what I now know was the quench line.  I didn't know that at the time, and it killed forging for me as I chalked it up as too difficult and unreliable.

 

Later, when I was restoring an 1936 International Harvester truck, I talked to several shops about duplicating the oak cab subframe that vehicle has (it is a very complex bit of woodworking with curves and tricky joinery)  Either they wouldn't do it or they wanted a fortune so I decided to do it myself.  I was in college at the time so money was tight, meaning spendy power tools were out of the question.  I bought some basic hand old hand tools, tuned them up and proceeded to figure it out.  In the process I learned two things:

1)  What makes a good tool

2)  I was capable of much finer work than I'd done previously. 

 

It was at this point that I realized that if I could improve my woodworking skills that much then I should see what I could do for my metalworking abilities!  I was also developing an interest in tools and toolmaking from the woodworking.  These two things complimented each other and led me to purchase a coal forge and find this forum.  I took a basic blacksmithing class and started tooling up my shop.

 

I like how blacksmithing compliments the other metal and wood working skills I already have.  Now I can honestly say that if it's made out of metal or wood - I can make it.

[DanielC]

I would say that my fascination to make something out of metal was when I was a young teen, and mulled over how to stock remove stainless steel to create the sword from a main character of my favorite book series growing up (The Sword of Truth from Terry Goodkind's The Sword of Truth series). After being too young to afford everything to do it, I put that idea on the back burner.

 

As an adult it happened for me on October 10, 2012. I normally have all NOVA episodes set to record on my DVR. Nova being my favorite tv source to watch informational programming (Commercial free, less biased), I watch it every week. On 10-10-12 NOVA had "Secrets of the Viking Sword" making its debut, the one with Ric Furrer in it. I believe I watched it a dozen times. I was that enthralled in the idea of forging metal. After a few weeks I joined IFI, and shortly after that I bought my first anvil.

 

These past few months have been some of the best of my life. Number one being mine and my wife's first baby was born into this world (Feb. 1st, 2013), and second this new found hobby/addiction to blacksmithy. I simply cannot wait to watch both of those things grow.

[jgirard13]

Very awesome replies so far! Very fun and interesting stories. The road you traveled is so important to your destination and with blacksmithing you have no idea where your destination may lie. I hope more ppl post on this thread, could inspire alot of the newbies

[C.D. Mitchell]

I've been playing with tools and building things since I was able to pick something up with my hands.  Anytime I needed to fix or make something, I would always try to do it myself.  When my truck broke down, I'd figure out how to fix it.  When a house needed construction done, I'd figure out how to build it.  When I needed a hammer handle, I'd figure out how to make a new one.  I've always had a desire to be as self-sufficient as possible, and therefore I take every opportunity to learn or sharpen my skill sets.  The main reason I got into blacksmithing was to have the ability to make my own tools, which means I can supply the tools or custom parts for whatever I may be working on.  Most of my skills have been built out of necessity, and every time a new skill needs to be learned I research it and practice it until I feel I have mastered it to a satisfactory level.  This has led me into many of the old trades, blacksmithing being one of them.  In some ways I consider myself a "jack of all trades", simply because I've done such a wide variety of things, but I also strive to be a true craftsman in all of those skills.  Creating and building things with my hands is a part of who I am, and I plan on building those skills and passing them on to others for the rest of my life.

[Dillon Sculpture]

I took an introductry summer class at University of Washington in Seattle. Lucky me Brent Kingston assisted by Rick Smith taught the corse, unfortunately I didn't know who they were! I was young and very self absorbed... They had just installed a 300 self contained Chambersburg that needed a cleaning out :D After about a couple weeks of basic hand work they let me pop her off a bit and it was a done deal! I remember them telling me to go a bit slower on the throttle, some things I will never fully understand :huh:

[VaughnT]

When I was a young child, my parents got me interested in reading. By the time I was ten, I had read a lot of the classics, including La Morte d' Aurthor.  It was inspirational, to say the least.

 

Then, when I was about fifteen years of age, my Aunt introduced me to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, including Tolkein's other works.

 

It was then that I was entranced by the idea of forging iron into useable things.  I had always been interested in history and where mankind came from, but it took the fantastical to really fire up my curiosity.

 

Then, just after graduating from high school, I met Charlie Dingler.  He was doing a demonstration at a festival and I got to talk with him a bit.  Long story short, I visited his shop entirely too much and got bit by the bug.  Charlie didn't do big jobs, but he inspired me to stretch my wings and I've been interested ever since.

 

Blacksmithing isn't for everyone, but for me it is the chosen trade.  The smell of coal burning.  The sound of the anvil's ring.  The feel of iron under the hammer.  Something tells me that this is what I'm supposed to do with my life.

[Daniel.85]

I saw a few videos of brake drum forges and realized I could scrounge up stuff I already had to make one. Its been a constant learning/upgrading of tools and techniques since then.

[nc_cooter]

I sort of eased into blacksmithing through my knife making. I started grinding knives about 16 years ago. Built a propane forge for heat treating. It didn't take long to begin looking into forging knives. My first anvil was a piece of RR rail. Lots of trials and many errors. Sometimes self teaching sucks.

Finally scored a couple of anvils and moved up on the learning curve. It didn't take long to discover that 5 min. on the anvil saved 20 min. on the grinder. I also reduced the number of  sizes of stock I had to buy.

As word got out in my area that I had a forge, people would ask about about things other than knives. Cooking iron sets, fireplace sets, farm equipment repairs/parts, repointing jack hammer bits, etc. During that time, it was small money and barter, just to cover supply coats. It payed for my learning.

Today, I am still learning, but the money is better and the barter is much better. It is still my hobby and always will be. Been retired for 6 years and go to the forge almost every day. It's the only hobby I have had that pays for itself.

About 3 years ago, I started teaching my meager skills to anyone who wants to learn. I don't charge for my time, only for supplies. I am now teaching student #6. The other 5 now have their on shops and a couple have out done the teacher.

 

Mike

[Frank Turley]

When I was a young child, my parents got me interested in reading. By the time I was ten, I had read a lot of the classics, including La Morte d' Aurthor.  It was inspirational, to say the least.

 

Then, when I was about fifteen years of age, my Aunt introduced me to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, including Tolkein's other works.

 

It was then that I was entranced by the idea of forging iron into useable things.  I had always been interested in history and where mankind came from, but it took the fantastical to really fire up my curiosity.

 

Then, just after graduating from high school, I met Charlie Dingler.  He was doing a demonstration at a festival and I got to talk with him a bit.  Long story short, I visited his shop entirely too much and got bit by the bug.  Charlie didn't do big jobs, but he inspired me to stretch my wings and I've been interested ever since.

 

Blacksmithing isn't for everyone, but for me it is the chosen trade.  The smell of coal burning.  The sound of the anvil's ring.  The feel of iron under the hammer.  Something tells me that this is what I'm supposed to do with my life.

Did you run across Tolkein's "The Smith of Wooten Major?"

[Pug}{maN]

My everyday job is building custom motorcycles . I have built a few rat rods from the ground up also . So welding grinding metal work in general is what I love to do . I got into antique tractors also enjoying the western Missouri antique tractor and machinery Association. I ended up on the board of directors where I met the resident blacksmith . The shows we put on our usually Friday Saturday and Sundays he is very Christian and does not work on Sundays so he took me under his wing and showed me a few things for I could work for him on Sundays. well that was it I was hooked . 2 other people that come to the shows help me along the way to . It's been very enjoyable can't wait to see what the future brings.

[mailledemon]

I had a slight interest in Smithing when I was around twelve, but I never acted on that interest. Sure, I heated up rebar and hit it with a rock a couple of times, but I never counted that as smithing. Then, one summer at Akela's world, I met someone who went by the name of "Chainmail". He was starting smithing as a hobby and I thought it was pretty cool. I went home and made a tiny little brake rotor forge and had a three foot section of rail stood on end for an anvil. Since then, I've upgraded to having three functional forges, One Sodofers anvil, a striker I made, and I still have the piece of rail in a bucket of dirt; dirt makes a pretty quiet anvil base. The man known as "Chainmail" still lurks this site. He goes by "Maillemaker"  on IFI.

[Maillemaker]

Hey! You talking about me behind my back?

My story is eerily similar to mailledemon's.  I was always interested in medieval history as a kid.  This led me to lots of medieval-based computer games, then on to learning to weave maille (taught at scout camp), and rescuing my great-grandfather's rivet forge from a half-century of flower stand duty.

I am registered as an official Metalworking Merit Badge instructor for the scouts, and bring my forge and anvil up to summer camp to teach younger staff.

[snakeriveridaho]

I enjoyed working with metal and hammers as a kid on a cattle farm in the Ozark Mountains. At craft shows I would see Blacksmiths and had an interest since then. I never had the time or money. It seemed like an unrealistic goal to me then. More of a novelty. Recently my wife bought me a forged spacula at a coffee shop/bakery in Edison, Washington. That renewed the interest. Now, with the information available on the internet, learning about a topic or a potential hobby is easy. I also became interested in shaving with a staight razor several years ago. I got on line, learned about shaving technique, stropping, honing, and found a place to buy a razor. It was an easy process. The internet has facilitated a renewal in these type of ancient skills.

 

Kirk

[Chinobi]

I started with plastic models as a kid and worked up from there to wood and small stock brass tubing to make miniatures of things.  in high school i started taking jewelry classes to learn how to solder and get to use bigger tools in the shop, i ended up loving silver work and put together enough kit at home to be able to do my own work after graduation.  my metalwork stayed pretty much within the silversmithing and small scale mechanical stuff until i flipped through a metalsmithing book that had a (woefully inadequate) section on Mokume Gane, which after some preliminary testing and research it became aparent that i had neither the skill nor equipment for the job.  several days of googling left me a member here on IFI knowing i would need to learn how to swing a hammer on an anvil and a reference to Adam's Forge out of los angeles, where the bug found me and took a bite :)

[Neil Blythin]

Its still early days/years for me, as I've only been doing this for a couple of years.  But there were multiple things that led me to smithing...

 

1. I've always enjoyed working with my hands, and building things.  I've done woodworking since receiving a basic tool kit for Christmas when I was 8 years old - and have been doing that ever since.

 

2. Years ago, I did a bunch of research on my family tree.  Looking at census records, I found patterns - my ancestors having done a few different occupations.  One of those, was blacksmithing (along with farming, coal mining and ship building).  Many generations of my family, on various 'branches' of my tree, did this as an occupation.  I filed that little tidbit of information away at the back of my brain, and sort of forgot about it.

 

3. Working for the past 15+ years sitting at a computer, doing office work.  Those years were split at two companies, both of which went out of business (due to recessions, etc.) leading to being laid-off twice.  Every last but of work I ever did for those two companies, over all those years, has been destroyed when the businesses closed.  Every report, every document has been shredded and every electronic file deleted.  There is absolutely no physical evidence of my 'life's work' to date.

 

Disillusioned by my experiences in the corporate world, I decided to look for some form of work that I would find more personally rewarding... That in itself was a long and winding road.  Starting a second career in your late 30's isn't an easy decision to make.

 

4. My wife & I went visiting a friend / work acquaintance of hers one day.  He has a son who is a blacksmith.  I mentioned that I had an interest in smithing (thinking back to that family tree research), and he asked if we would like to go see his son's shop.  The answer was "absolutely!" .... and so, I met and was given a tour of John Newman's shop in Hamilton.  That visit is what really started the wheels in motion.  

 

A year later, I could no longer resist it, and took an intro course with David Robertson.  It's been an all-consuming hobby ever since.  I am now attempting to incorporate that all-consuming hobby into my work.  If not as a full-time smith (which I understand is a long shot) - then some form of work which will involve smithing at some level.

 

So, it's not a simple or linear path that led me to this ... and I don't know if that makes sense to anyone else but me.  But there it is.

[Pault17]

nice one.  I enjoy others' stories, as well as sharing mine. 

My first intro was at a renfair somewhere around central NJ (lakewood) when I was a senior in high school.  I talked with the female apprentice who was cleaning up the "shop" at the fair while her master was at lunch.  I passed on an invite to talk with the master about apprenticeship in his shop in toledo, spain (young and dumb and afraid to leave home)

After I was newly married (still married to the same beautiful woman going on 21 years, and parents of 10 indigenous children), we went to a little mountain fair in "little" washington VA and actually swung a hammer on steel for the first time.  The smith said I was a "natural" and should try it out, but I didn't (again).

Well God was evidently involved with all these attempts, because about 8 or 9 years ago, I moved my family down to a little town just south of Raleigh NC.  A year later my in-laws followed us and retired onto a small 15-acre piece of what used to be some families farm.  Their retirement place was about 4 acres cleared and the rest was hilly brambles and woods with all kinds of junk pushed into the woods.  One day, I was walking around in their woods and stubbed my toe on the "toe" of a little 75-lb no name anvil.  Just the toe was sticking up, and I dug the anvil out with a pocket knife.  Low and behold, buried right next to the anvil was a 4-inch, 40-lb leg vice missing the spring.  minimal rust and fully operational.  nothing else was within 20 feet.  believe me, I checked on my hands and knees.  Well I brought the anvil and vice up to the house (about a 1/4 mile away, but those things practially floated the whole way) and showed them to my Father in Law.  He said he didn't want 'em and my wife said "God had to dump them on you to make you get the hint".  I have been happily banging ever since, any chance I can get.

[hildenmw]

Harpers Ferry bi centennial celebration . I was 18. Who ever the blacksmith was , was excellent !
Marc

[jawno]

I've always been a metalworker. What fascinates me is when I see something made out of metal and have to ask myself "how the heck did they do that?" That's kind of what got me into it. I found that some items were just way easier to forge than try to machine them or weld them. Do you have any idea how much time it would take to machine something like a rams head door knocker? I sure don't but I do know I can forge them in a fraction of the time.

[rockstar.esq]

I had a materials testing lab class in college.  We called it "smash lab" because of the destructive testing exercises.  The lesson on heat treating steel was enlightening.  Watching the instructor snap a fully hardened HC bar, then anneal the remainder so he could show how much abuse it'd take was enlightening.  I'd heard of tempering but it was mysterious.  Understanding the fundamentals of the transitions was impressive.

 

I watched a bushcrafting video on youtube where a guy annealed a file with a campfire.  After shaping the metal he heat treated it with a blower feeding through a buried pipe into the same campfire.

 

I tried it myself and quickly decided I wanted to shape metal rather than simply "cut and paste".  I've enjoyed it tremendously and I think it's amazing that it's possible to plumb new depths of understanding from whatever level you're at. Even if you don't know the physics or chemistry behind it, it's still more than possible to make great things. It rewards curiosity and hard work in a way I feel is unique.