lowhy-welder Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 Nope take that back, I'm a wannabe smith. I've been welding since I was 12 (started out mig, moved on to stick and then tig if you must know) and was a shop welder for a few years before I went back to my current job as a plumber. Crazy I know but it's actually not that different. I'm just now at a point in my life where I can finally set up a shop and have some fun. Oh I'm 24 now if you were wondering. I've always been fascinated by metallurgy and the like. Anyways the point of this thread is just to introduce myself and to ask for help. I'm starting to build a small forge was thinking of going with coal and a simple a/c fan that I have salvaged and re-purposed and a sink lined with fire bricks. I need an anvil but until I find or can afford one I plan on locating some scrap I-beam from a local shop. As a welder I am familiar with hot metal, and have had to improvise plate into hooks and various other things. What floors me is tempering and hardening iron and steel. Quenching was always a no-no from my experience I always thought it weakened the metal or could contaminate my welds. Anyways I'm gonna browse this forum more it seems like there are plenty of experienced metal workers here. Sorry about the length. Any tips, advice, comments, questions or just random factoid are more than appreciated. Thanks in advance! Oh, and my eventual goal would be to smith hunting knives, since I can never find one I'm truly happy with, and I would love to be able to give the man who taught me everything a blade just as tough, durable and sharp as he is. I kinda figure that's a while off though, gotta crawl before you run kinda thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielpiotte Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 Where are you located? If you add this ( in a general sense ie. state and section) you will probably find some one on the forum near you. Good Luck Daniel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 Welcome aboard, glad to have you. If you put your general location in the header and you may be happy to discover how many of the IFI gang live within visiting distance. folk knowing about where you are really helps in the tool quest and finding expert hands on help. forget using a piece of I beam/wide flange, et. as an anvil there's no material under the blows so it just vibrates, a smooth boulder works better, LOTS better. Find a piece of RR rail or similar you need a deep center of mass. Mount shafting on end for best effect. Using an old sink for a solid fuel forge is a well proven method, there're plenty of them in the forge section under coal/charcoal. Learn to forge before you spend a lot of time learning to heat treat and just forget trying to heat treat an anvil. (If I read you correctly) heat treating so much mas is a pretty involved process and requires resources most home shops just don't have. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan C Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 Welcome to IFI. There is a ton of information here, so much you may end up on a different road that you started on. For bladesmithing and heat treating I would recommend you start here. http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/151-knife-class-reference-material/ If I can learn to do it you certainly can with your prior experience, heat treating isn't magic or voodoo. Read what's on this site and then give it a try once you get your forge setup. You don't even need an anvil, though it helps as it'll save you some time tapering and beveling the edges or point. This thread may help while searching for an anvil. '?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>> Experiment making screwdrivers or sharpening a point and knife like edge onto an old file, harden & temper and then see if you can hammer it into a piece of wood and twist it out without breaking. It snaps, temper the remaining end to the next color and try again. It'll all start making sense. Also better to first learn on things like these though than trying to learn on a tool like a punch or hammer which could fragment and become a projectile if not tempered enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowhy-welder Posted June 13, 2013 Author Share Posted June 13, 2013 Great, thanks for the info folks. I'm located in west texas and not too great with computers so I'm not sure how to put it into my heading or anything fancy. Also thanks for the links saves me some time searching all over the place for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan C Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 top right hand corner, select your id that has the upside down arrow, select myprofile -> edit profile -> then scroll down to the profile information section Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowhy-welder Posted June 13, 2013 Author Share Posted June 13, 2013 ok I figured that part out thanks dcraven. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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