If not at home, where do you do your smithing?

[Oregon Duck]

I don't have the out door building to make a smithy at home. 

I could use some of your ideas to help me in my search for my future smithy!

[VaughnT]

You don't need a building to smith in.  A roof is nice, but many a shade tree has had an anvil parked under it!

[L Smith]

 When I lived in an apartment I bought a coal farriers forge and kept it chained in my pickup. The anvil on the floor boards.  Then I found an out of the way vacant street in a new housing area. Some times would go out in the country  on a fairly deserted road. Only had one cop stop by but no hassle. It can be done I did it for a year. Still have the forge just need a 12Volt charger for the blower.

[Frosty]

I smithed in a trailer court for a good 5 years,kept everything in a shed and packed it out and in. That was before the internet and I figured out how to build a propane burner so I burned wood and charcoal. to keep the neighbors from complaining I was careful to only forge mid day and did a LOT of knife sharpening, minor repairs and even baby sat. Kids LOVED to watch me forge and if they didn't behave I made them leave so they ALL behaved.

 

When Deb and I first moved here I smithed outside and then under a tarp tent. I painted an old metal bucket black on the inside for a shadow box so I oculd judge temperatures.

 

I've also done a LOT of camp fire smithing when working in the field. I'm just not the type to knock off a half rack of beer after work so I played with fire, hammers and whatever scrap I found. Made an awful lot of fire pokers, toasting forks and branding irons.

 

Those are actually some really good memories. No building and bare minimum tools reduces smithing to it's essence and it's the smithing I enjoy.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Charles R. Stevens]

I'm a farrier, so my primary forge lives on the back of my truck.
That said, I've worked out of a trailer, Ive even set up a canopy to do demmoes and such.

[John McPherson]

Farriers do this every day, it is called taking the tools to the jobsite. The US Cavalry made it fit on a mule. Some English smiths had everything on a motorcycle sidecar during WWII.

 

Plan wisely, keep your kit small and portable, and it will serve you well as a traveling demo set-up later, when you have a permanent shop. I have packed a demo kit (tables, tent, vise and all) to set up in parks and Scout events in a Honda many times. I am working on a pre-1800 setup now to use for an Indian village demo. (Yes, even Native Americans had smiths and smithys after contact.)

 

There are tons of projects that can be made in a small forge. You are limited only by your imagination.

[Fe-Wood]

If you really want to smith, you will find a way. I had a small commission many years ago. I didn't have a shop at all. I lived in an apartment in the city. I had an out door storage (shipping container) for my tools and such. So, in the front door of the container with a torch, hammer and anvil I made the piece that is in my avatar. The wood base I made at the furniture shop I worked at. Non of use know your circumstances or resources. Be clever! You will find a way!

[Dodge]

Do you have a garage at all? I forge just outside my garage, under the sun, clouds, and what ever weather I or my gasser want to deal with ;) and store it all back inside when done and cooled. If all I had was my gas forge, 100# propane tank, anvil, I could still park in the 11' wide one-car garage. I have more than that due to other hobbies, but the basics really don't take up that much space.

[DickyPitts]

 About a year ago, I needed to fire up the forge to shape the supports for my motorcycle fender. I set up my anvil and forge in my college parking lot ( my room mates didn't have anywhere I could set up). The campus cops did come by, but were more interested in what I was doing than where i was doing it. I think one of them wanted to give it a go, but he was on duty. It helped that i was in the middle of an asphalt parking lot and there was no fire danger. My tools lived in the back of my truck under a camper shell for about a year. I guess you do what you must.

I once built a forge in a refugee village in Yucatan Mexico, out of mud, a rock for an anvil and downed wood for fuel. My only tools for that enterprise were a pocket knife and determination. I used a scrap of angle iron to hardface a rock and a stick for a hammer. It kept coming apart, because the bailing string I tied it all together with kept catching on fire. The whole thing was nothing more than entertainment for me while on a mission trip for the church I was with at the time. I think if I'd asked the locals for help, they'd have had a manufacturing plant set up before I left. Those people were inventive!

[David R.]

My little rivet forge and anvil sits outside near the door of my tiny shop. A walnut post sunk in the ground holds a vise. Washtubs and a bucket keeps the rain out. I depend on fair weather and usually wait till evening when the shade is over so I can see the heats better. My plan is eventually to build a new shop with a traditional brick forge and bellows set up. The little forge isn't big enough for large projects, but I'm very blessed to have access to a couple large well equipped shops occasionally. One is a traditional set up where we do historical interpretations and the other is a friends shop.

[Charles R. Stevens]

For the first 1000 years or so forges were holes in the ground about 6" across and 8" deap. Anvils a reeves 40# or les. A 3-5 gallon steel bucket filled with adobe , a hair drier and a piece of pipe, a second one for your tools (doubles as a slack tub) and your set. Easy to move , easy to set up. Add a quick up shelter and you can forge where you like.
Hey Frosty maybe that's what the trucker needs? Add a 20# sledge, a 40# stump and a stool...

[Frosty]

For the first 1000 years or so forges were holes in the ground about 6" across and 8" deap. Anvils a reeves 40# or les. A 3-5 gallon steel bucket filled with adobe , a hair drier and a piece of pipe, a second one for your tools (doubles as a slack tub) and your set. Easy to move , easy to set up. Add a quick up shelter and you can forge where you like.
Hey Frosty maybe that's what the trucker needs? Add a 20# sledge, a 40# stump and a stool...

 

That'll work, add a cast iron hibachi and some charcoal, 12v blower and you're ready to rock.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

Funny you should mention this....My new job has me baching it in a rental house snug in a suburban neighborhood, no smithing!  However my new church has 5 acres of land surround by farm fields (St Lukes in the Cotton Patch)  and my pastor and his wife want to learn to smith and have invited me to set up out there....First forging went well and I've sourced the materials and tools for the next item they wanted to make...

 

I had one of my students smith while he was living in a college dorm----one of the BBQ grills chained out behind the dorm to the fence was really a propane forge in disguise...

[Oregon Duck]

Thank you to all who have answered my post. Some very useful advise and crazy stories. They have all given me inspiration. 

[Mitsuwa]

If you know what you are doing, renting time in some one elses blacksmith shop might be an option.

Find a school with forges and take classes there or rent time for use of the facilities. Net work with your regional blacksmithing groups. Try through ABANA.

[notownkid]

My first experience at the forge was under a roof made of 2 2x6s nailed to a big old Elm tree behind the livery stable I worked at, when I was 10. My job was to crank the handle while they made replacement parts for carriages used in restorations.

 

Later I summered with a Standardbred racing stable in VT, we had a rivet gorge we used for shoeing and repairs, we also cooked our Steaks on it for Sunday dinner.

 

Now building my first Shop just for Blacksmithing where everything can be under 1 roof, IF I can remember where it is all stored. 

 

Had my shop forge set up in an old milkhouse attached to our large barn, things got a little warm in there so the little lady suggested I build an independent shop away from all other buildings. 

[Francis Trez Cole]

my first shop way under the sky then I added a cover and as years went on now I have a building. something as simple as a car port covered with a tarp or a pop up canopy . there is a great video of a Russian knife maker that has his rig in a back pack. very coo l

[notownkid]

Had a friend that went to an "outing for smiths" suppose to be a wet day so he took his new pop up canopy with nice folding metal frame. he got his fire ripping hot and all he came home with was his folding frame his canopy had melted/burned stunk up the whole place. Hasn't been invited back since.