Nohone Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 Topic pretty much states it. I have with me a 2 burner economy gas forge from diamondback forge, 180lb anvil, cross pein and ball pein hammer, and one pair of tongs. Unfortunately I don't have a vise, grinder, chop saw, or drill press, although I do have limited access to them, it's a long drive, and I'd rather adapt to just what I have. To cut cold metal, I use a cold chisel. It's a bit of a pain, but I manage. I know I can make knives with what I've got, but I am looking for other simpler artistic/useful things I can make and sell for some chump change to keep me going. I'm kind of new, and I barely know how to forge weld. Please feel free to share your ideas. So far I know I can make... Eating utensils BBQ turner S hooks P.S: I like putting twists on my work, but since I don't have a vise I am having a bit of trouble figuring out a practical way to make twists with just what I've got. If you have an idea, feel free to share. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Hammer Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 Look here... http://www.blacksmithing.org/Articles/ViewArticles.htm To twist without a vise, make two twisting bars... with one of plugged into your hardy hole. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maillemaker Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 More tongs, chisels, punches and drifts, holdfasts, spring fullers, flint strikers, tomahawks, chain links. While I realize that these aren't "artsy" things, they are valuable tools. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan C Posted April 17, 2013 Share Posted April 17, 2013 Gardening tools and bottle openers have been good sellers for me. I use railroad spikes which I got by asking workers at the railyard in exchange for beer and then I use wrenches I bought cheap at pawnshops to make openers which I take anytime I go to an autoparts or similar store. I would put a vise as one of your top priorities. Please post some pics of the things you've made. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dale M. Posted April 17, 2013 Share Posted April 17, 2013 I think you may be letting the fact you have minimal tools to work with get in the way of your creativity.... IN some countries they do no even have what you have and they can machine out really creative things like guns and engines and pumps.... Dale Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timothy Miller Posted April 17, 2013 Share Posted April 17, 2013 I would suggest finding a vise and mounting it properly and perhaps a few files and a hack saw. if you master these tools you will see few limits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neg Posted April 17, 2013 Share Posted April 17, 2013 I've never in my life been to a flea market without at least a couple of vises selling at around $10 a piece. They aren't hard to come by and it doesn't have to be a post vise, just something to grip your work. There's really no end to the things you can make... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted April 17, 2013 Share Posted April 17, 2013 The obvious thing from my point of veiw is the tools you need to work with. Tongs can be made with out tongs, you need properly shaped ones to hold steel to make punches and drifts, they replace the drill press for most work. Hot and cold cut hardies as well as long handled hot cut chisels make cutting with out power tools or a hacksaw and vice much nicer. Iron Age smiths didn't have a metal vice, and they did well, somtimes you have to recruits a helper but I it's to help build a tool that eliminates the need for the helper, it's worth the haste. Tool building will build the skills and mind set you need for money making (or favor acumilating) projects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nohone Posted April 17, 2013 Author Share Posted April 17, 2013 I could find anything if I really wanted to. Finding a vise is not my concern. After rereading my original post I can see I definitely was not clear, I apologize for that. I like adapting to unfavorable odds, so I don't care to purchase anymore tools until I have learned to do with what I have. When I no longer feel like I need the vise, then I will purchase the vise. Why you should see my smithy set-up, any wrong turn I make will either singe off my beard or cause property damage. I did that on purpose! I am still new to this, so I am not sure what I can make with what I have, that is why I am asking. I'd just like some ideas to ponder about. From the ideas you give me, more ideas from myself will sprout. So please feel free to continue giving me ideas, I like the ideas given already, but more will certainly help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted April 17, 2013 Share Posted April 17, 2013 If you have a forge, anvil and hammer you can make everything else you need. Make a hot cut or cold chisel for cutting metal, a punch for making holes, make your own tongs, hammers, and yes even a vise. I know blacksmiths that live off the grid and they prefer it that way. Anything more than the basic fire, anvil and hammer just makes life for the blacksmith a lot easier. The most important tool you have is between your ears, your brain. You can make any thing that you can imagine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Hale Posted April 17, 2013 Share Posted April 17, 2013 I read wot you said a couple of times..the part about just using you have until youi learn to use the limited equipment well. Got me thinking about wot might have happened if I had not boiught shoes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaughnT Posted April 17, 2013 Share Posted April 17, 2013 If you have a coil spring from a car, I would first make a hold-fast so I can hold other things to the anvil for piecing, cutting and filing. Then I would make a couple of chisels so I could cut metal being held in the hold-fast. Then I would make a few punches of various sizes and shapes so that I can pierce and decorate metal held by the hold-fast. With the hold-fast, chisels and punches done, I would work on making tongs. I would buy the mild steel locally if I couldn't scrounge it, and I would practice making all sorts of tongs. You need bent-nose tongs, roundstock tongs, square stock tongs, flat stock tongs, offset tongs..... There are so many options it's not funny!! The key is to make tongs that are better than the last set. While you're learning hammer/heat control, you'll be steadily improving the quality of the tongs in both looks and function, and you don't need a set of tongs to make that first set of tongs! It's such a wonderful skill to have, but start with the tools that allow you to make other things. They are simple shapes to form, but teach a ton and are indispensable around the shop! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metalmangeler Posted April 18, 2013 Share Posted April 18, 2013 You ask what you can make with what you have, and most experinced smiths think you need more tongs and you can make them. Then you say you want to make things without adding to your tools. You can make a lot of things with the tools you have fireplace tools come to mind, the sort of stuff that is long enough that you do not need tongs, but if you want to be efficeint you will need more tools. We are mostly tool addicts, perhaps you are asking the wrong people. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 18, 2013 Share Posted April 18, 2013 A great many of us are smiths as a matter of preference, not necessity so being a minimalist smith isn't too off the rails for this bunch. What can you make with your tools? Take a look around, pick something and take a lash at it. If/when you reach a point you just cant figure out how to make a process work, ask us and if that fails figure out what tool you NEED and make IT. Then carry on to the next step. There are smiths in the thirld world who work by those "rules" every day. They can't afford all the goodies and the only way they have to travel is by foot so they can't afford the weight. Do a little searching on the web and you'll find videos of smiths forging on stake anvils with one hammer a split branch for tongs and feathers in a bamboo section for bellows. Those guys are making everything from kitchen utensils, brush axes, machetes to Ak47 relicas. Some don't have a file, they use a scraper and sand or sand stone. There's one video out there where the smith was welding old auto body parts together for stock and was chewing charcoal and spitting it on for flux. What you can make with what you have is dependent on what YOU can make. Enjoy the journey, it's a grand ride. Frosty the Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nohone Posted April 18, 2013 Author Share Posted April 18, 2013 You ask what you can make with what you have, and most experinced smiths think you need more tongs and you can make them. Then you say you want to make things without adding to your tools. You can make a lot of things with the tools you have fireplace tools come to mind, the sort of stuff that is long enough that you do not need tongs, but if you want to be efficeint you will need more tools. We are mostly tool addicts, perhaps you are asking the wrong people. :) I have tongs. I have made them with the tools I have. They work great. Look my friends... I am simply asking for ideas. What is it with these complexities? Just give me ideas. Some of you did, thank you, but why I am thanking you for answering a question? Only because there are so many who do not. Now answering questions has become a luxury. "How do I get to the market from here?" "Well you know some people in the 3rd world don't have cars..." *Facepalm* This is like a slot machine, I pull the lever hoping to get gold and all I get are pennies!....and I don't even like Vegas! It's not as if I can't make my own ideas. I can, everyone can. I just want yours. I want to know, very simply, what you think I can make with what I have. I want to know your opinion on whether or not I need more stuff. And I know how it is in this "3rd world" some of you brought up. I am from the "3rd world", and it's still apart of the same world as the "1st world". Why are we talking about man-made worlds here anyway? How boring. The human world has little to do with the real world. I just want ideas of what I can do with metal with the stuff I have. Tell tell me the item names, you needn't even tell me how to do it, I just want to know the names of the items I can make, so that I can research it on my own. So far, I got many tools for ideas. Great ideas! I didn't know what some of them were, so I looked them up, now I know their function and I know how to make them. Any artistic ideas you guys can come up with? Maybe with photos too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Hale Posted April 18, 2013 Share Posted April 18, 2013 I reallly like that you are willing to look things up....that will take you a long ways,,,And this site is the place to do that very thing,,,look through all of the blacksmithing threads and the look in the pages area for blueprints,,,And of course the tools section.The sections on starfting out has ideas also...Don't forget problem solving. Some of those areas will have questions aboiut how to handle something that may stir yoiur imagination for something you wish to make. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Francis Trez Cole Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 I get your point. There are some very good idea's that have been given so far. 1) you have limited tools. Answer You need to make cutting tools. 2). you need a way to make holes in metal. Answer you need to make tools punches slitter's and drifts. with the above tools You can make hammers, Dragons, tremmel hooks, cheese cutters, candle holders,and much much more. I do not want to sound harsh but I do not think anyone here is going to spoon feed you. There are more projects on this site if you did them all it would take you more that a few years to master Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lcb Posted April 20, 2013 Share Posted April 20, 2013 You said, "Why you should see my smithy set-up, any wrong turn I make will either singe off my beard or cause property damage. I did that on purpose!" There are a lot of things in a smithy that are dangerous. You however have made your workshop dangerous on purpose! Not good! The people in the know here preach safety and with good reason. I hope you said that with tongue in cheek. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alec.S Posted April 20, 2013 Share Posted April 20, 2013 Sitting in the airport, I felt like giving nohone a reply he wanted! Bottle openers Steak turners Other BBQ and fire tending tools Sharp pointy things Hooks Key fobs Rings (if you can hold the forming mandril somehow in your anvil) Hand tools (you might need a vice however...(filing, grinding etc) Tongs Candle holders Candelabras Picture frames Hammers Belt Buckles Puzzle games Toys The things you hang on christmas trees as decorations Toilet holders Towel Holders Sculptures Axes Necklaces General types of forged jewellery and body adornment You can also practice efficient forging techniques! etc etc etc etc this list is endless! Hope that was of a little help, Nohone :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dale M. Posted April 21, 2013 Share Posted April 21, 2013 This would be my suggestion for "projects"... http://images.lmgtfy.com/?q=blacksmith+projects Dale Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thingmaker3 Posted April 21, 2013 Share Posted April 21, 2013 Another answer: Every metal item found in the Mastermyer chest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awalker Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 If you like teists but have no vise just make a hardy tool for holding what ever size you usually use. To build it simply weld a stub (to go into the hardy hole) onto a thick piece of flat bar. On top of the flat bar weld two pieces of heavy square or round stock pointing up and the exact width apart as the material you wish to twist. will look like a narrow bending fork. Then simply bring your hot stock to it, set it between the legs, put your twisting wrench on the other side and twist away. Also pretty easy to make a horizontal vise for the top of the anvil too. Use a piece of heavy plate, weld a hardy stub on the back. On top weld half a C-clamp. There is your vise. You can weld a plate to the end of the clamp screw and put some guides on it if you want, but the bare clamp will work wonders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Borntoolate Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 hot cut hardy tool. Though even a sharp corner on your anvil or other piece of metal can be a hot cut. Probably even a dull corner.... Stuff what you need... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awalker Posted April 23, 2013 Share Posted April 23, 2013 What is the Mastermyer Chest? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K. Bryan Morgan Posted April 24, 2013 Share Posted April 24, 2013 http://netlabs.net/~osan/Mastermyr/ This was a chest that was found in a Swedish farmers field. He had recently drained the field and was plowing it. The chest contained blacksmiths and carpenters tools. Many people have reproduced the chest and its contents as an exercise in blacksmithing and also to just make something really cool. The archaeologists determined that the chest and its contents were about 1000 years old. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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