Well, after building my first forge and finding a used anvil I finally got to start heating and playing with some metal.  The hook was my first attempt at heating something up and moving metal around.  I sure learned a lot about heat, hammering, etc.  It is ugly but I am really proud of making it on my own with a forge I built myself.  The ash tool was my second and am pretty pleased with the taper on this one.  Next is to start making some tools like tongs and anvil hold down tools.  The best news is that I only burned myself a few times and none of them were serious!  Thanks to everyone for their help in getting started.

nothing to be ashamed of here. nice work for first time. it will only get  better.

Very good work.  The first time at the forge is a magical moment, and you've got some good tools to show for it.

 

Now, focus on making your tools so you can make even more complicated works.  You need at least a dozen chisels, slitters and drifts of various configurations.  Tongs and tong blanks by the bunch.  

 

Here's Brian's video on making tongs.  Definitely the best I've seen, and he explains all you need to know about making top-shelf kit.

 

Good start! Relatively speaking I'm still a newbie and am self taught so take that into consideration when deciding if you want to take on board what I suggest or not but my suggestion would be to hold off on the tongs and tools for the minute and make a dozen of one thing. I've found making multiples of one small thing can be really educating and can serve you better in the long run by saving you time and effort on the bigger projects because you've got a better understanding on how metal moves, how much material you'll need need, how much heat you'll need, do you need to spot heat a certain area, how to correct mistakes etc etc etc

 

IMHO it's better to drill the essentials into your head on small items at the very start because you'll be more efficient with future projects which will save you time and money. Better to eat up 6 foot of mild steel getting tapering spot on than screw up a useful pieces of tool or spring steel by folding cold shuts into your punch tapers. With mild steel taper an inch at a time of square and round bar, cut it off, do it again, cut it off, do it again...

 

Try making a dozen hooks like the one you've already made - finial scrolls the same tightness and length, the hook curve the same shape, the flattened area for the screw the same shape...it ain't easy.

Joel, I am anxiously awaiting my forge parts, but am practicing tapering on clay for the time being. I think I will take the multiple uniform object approach as well. And hopefully I'll remember to take pics so later I can SEE how far I've come. ;-)

I think I will take the multiple uniform object approach as well.

Cool. Don't be too much of a drill sergeant with yourself, no two will be dead on exactly the same and in a way that's helpful because you'll see differences between them. If you pay attention to each hit as you're doing it you'll quickly pick up what made them different and that will lead you to understand a million and one things like what angle you need to hold the steel at to achieve what you want to do.

 

I'm not at a stage yet where I can get things right first time/with one hit, but because of doing what I've suggested I've learnt how to correct/tweak things so they are right.