1st timer's anvil

[adambieber]

Ok please forgive me in advance. I did TRY looking it up so I'm gonna ask because I couldn't find what i was looking for. I'm not even smithing yet but I'd like to get an idea for when I can. I know that some people suggest a train track. But I do have some money to invest with so if I can get actual tools like that then I'd rather go that route. I also know that not one anvil can do it all. So what I'm looking to do is start small. Make some blades, pound some metal etc. I have no intentions of going big yet. But I'm not sure what kind of anvil to get, where to get it, what style etc. I was looking at stump anvils, double horns..It's a lot for a noobie and I don't have an actual teacher with the exception of the ones on the other side of this screen! :D

[Ferrous Beuler]

Well Adam I think it's great that you are interested in the craft. Usually I would recommend finding a group near you to attend from this list~

 

http://www.iforgeiron.com/page/index.html/_/articles/a0000-blacksmithing-groups-r75

 

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a group in your area.  My best advice is to go to some meetings of your local ABANA affiliate because that would put you directly in contact with blacksmiths and you could get your hands dirty while you learn a whole bunch.

 

Don't fret though, I think I have an idea. Just because there is no ABANA local in your neck of the woods doesn't mean there aren't any blacksmiths around. If I were in Ames Iowa I would go here~

 

Skei Coal and Wood. 639 Lincoln Way, Ames, Iowa, USA. Tel. (515) 232-4474. CellPhone (515) 231-2960  Biggest supplier in state of Iowa for coal and coke. Blacksmiths' coal in 50# bags. Soft coal & hard coal. Also supplies hard coal for heat.

 

And ask the owner if he may know any smiths he could introduce you to, and ask if you can post an ad on their bulletin board. Most places like that have one out front by the door. Don't worry, there are blacksmiths near you. Once you find them you will find a lot of your questions answered and get some good pointers. (they know where all the anvils are hidden away at too)

 

Good luck! 

[Frosty]

You're looking for a beginner anvil? Sorry but my mind is full of anvils with training horns, not so hardies and such. don't sweat it, find one in good shape you can afford and you're golden. Until you do find a good anvil, just find a heavy steel something you can use as one. It isn't the anvil that does the work it's the smith and once you've developed the skills sets you'll find it isn't all that important to have an "ANVIL".

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

to just get started a london pattern in the 90-130# weight is a good way to go and it can morph into your travel anvil when a big one comes along.

 

Remember time spent at an anvil counts towards getting good compared to  time spent "looking for the perfect anvil" which doesn't

[BCROB]

Adam go for it !! find a decent anvil you can afford and go for it , slowly gather tools along the way

the closest group I have is about 300 miles away and not an option when I started in this addiction..........there is plenty of great info right here to be had and on other sites as well

Mr Powers sums it up perfectly in the post above....like most hobbys and activities, "time spent at the anvil counts towards getting good"

[adambieber]

Well Adam I think it's great that you are interested in the craft. Usually I would recommend finding a group near you to attend from this list~

 

http://www.iforgeiron.com/page/index.html/_/articles/a0000-blacksmithing-groups-r75

 

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a group in your area.  My best advice is to go to some meetings of your local ABANA affiliate because that would put you directly in contact with blacksmiths and you could get your hands dirty while you learn a whole bunch.

 

Don't fret though, I think I have an idea. Just because there is no ABANA local in your neck of the woods doesn't mean there aren't any blacksmiths around. If I were in Ames Iowa I would go here~

 

Skei Coal and Wood. 639 Lincoln Way, Ames, Iowa, USA. Tel. (515) 232-4474. CellPhone (515) 231-2960  Biggest supplier in state of Iowa for coal and coke. Blacksmiths' coal in 50# bags. Soft coal & hard coal. Also supplies hard coal for heat.

 

And ask the owner if he may know any smiths he could introduce you to, and ask if you can post an ad on their bulletin board. Most places like that have one out front by the door. Don't worry, there are blacksmiths near you. Once you find them you will find a lot of your questions answered and get some good pointers. (they know where all the anvils are hidden away at too)

 

Good luck! 

Lincoln way? Thats really close to where I live..10 mins cause its on the other side of town not that it matters. Like I said in my intro post the nearest smith I could find doesn't take apprentices and he's listed on ABS

[Dan C]

Until you can find a decent anvil I'd use whatever heavy piece of steel you can get.  This piece of RR track was my initial setup and served well for 5-6 months until I could find & afford a london pattern PW.  I still find use it occasionally for the edges.

 

 

I tried searching the Ames, IA craig's list to look for listings, didn't see any local, but there were some listed in the surrounding area that might work.  One had a broken heel, but if it was close I'd grab it, clean it up, use it for now and try to sell for a profit when something else comes along.

[ThorsHammer82]

Just get something solid and heavy. Smiths used Rocks for a millenia. So long as it's heavy and solid and has a decent flat spot that you have easy access too and can beat on you're fine. You don't need a Horn, or for that matter a hardy or pritchel. what you need are a flat spot and some angles. Through in some ingenuity and you're off to the races.

[Frosty]

Yeah, I'm back. You aren't going to get far asking about an apprenticeship, they're very rare in this side of the pond and from what I'm reading not so common the other side anymore. I just took on a youngster who's main education has been online and it took a while to convince him I don't take on apprentices. I'm NOT going to give him a room, feed him nor work him mercilessly for a couple years to teach him to a journeyman's level. Heck, it's not really even legal in the US.

 

You'll get farther to just ask if you can watch while keeping out of the way. Offer to sweep floors, fetch and carry, whatever but most importantly keep out of the way and not pester the smith with too many questions.

 

An important thing to learn is jargon isn't necessarily exclusionary slang except when it's being abused. Jargon is a specialized language so practitioners of a trade or craft know what another practitioner means when he uses a term. For instance "hardy" is commonly used to mean any tool that is used in a hardy hole, while in fact a "Hardy" refers to only ONE tool a "Hardy is an anvil mounted "bottom tool" used to cut stock, hot or cold. That's it, all other tools that have shanks to fit the hardy hole are "Bottom Tools".

 

I'm not being critical, we all go through this learning the craft and a lot of "old timers" use regional terms or names and it takes a bit to winnow the meaning at times. Wading through the jargon is just another bit on the learning curve. However, some folk are sensitive about it. For instance, from my  own experience, the number of young men who want to become apprentices who don't want to do the work, think I'm being selfish for not showing them the SECRETS. Etc. etc. It can be pretty hard for me to avoid sharp responses, on occasion I run into someone who deserves no better. Some, the worst are the adults who have been around long enough they should know there's no magic.

 

Well, there are a couple SECRETS and here they are. Please feel free to take notes. Knowledge and practice. Virtually any craft boils down to knowing what to do and doing it often enough to develop the hand skills necessary. Sure some folk have a knack, call it a natural feeling and hand skills but they still need the knowledge to apply it.

 

That's it, knowledge and practice. Neither of these things calls for special tools, any object heavy enough to back the blows, a smooth faced hammer to deliver the blows, something to beat into submission and a fire to heat and soften it. Heck, it doesn't even take a blown fire for general basic smithing, I did it for years in camp fires in the Alaskan bush after work. Never made anything very fancy, branding irons, fire pokers, toasting forks, occasional stakes, stake pullers, etc. it was mostly a way to amuse myself instead of knocking off a half rack of beer every night.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Michael]

check out my first anvil, a chunk of less than perfect I beam. Hammered on that for over a year and learned a lot, including how not to hit my "anvil" surface with the hammer. 

 

A hammer, a bucket of water, some sort of forge and some sort of anvil will get you started, but you have to put some stuff together and just go for it.  You will learn more in that first hour of hitting metal you heated yourself that all the reading and dreaming you could do in a decade.

[adambieber]

I sincerely appreciate all the advice. I'm definitely willin' to bust my..butt to do this. I know it's not easy. Frosty I think what you're talking about is indentured servant. Maybe I'm wrong.

All I want is to learn the craft. It's amazing to me that we've learned to control such powerful elements.

 

Dan C thank you for looking. I'm not a fan of craigslist..had a bad incident with someone on there. Now if I do anything business wise on there I always carry a knife or have somethin close by.

 

Thor I think my neighbors would love the banging I bring to the neighborhood.  :D   I live in a quiet college town (Iowa state university) and the neighborhood is quiet as well.

 

I really do appreciate all the advice. Bein on here is gettin me more and more fired up..no pun intended :lol:

[ThomasPowers]

Nope traditional apprenticeship your parents paid the smith and he took you for 7 years of instruction and free work, feeding you and providing clothing.  At the end of which you were supposed to make your own set of tools and pass as a journeyman.  Even in colonial America you could read of ads for escaped apprintices!

[VaughnT]

Great to hear that you're interested in smithing. 

 

As a new entrant into this world, there are a few things that you need to pay attention to, and 99% of them have already been covered a thousand times.  But, that's what we're here for!

 

Anvils:  I-beams are not anvils.  You would be better off beating on an chunk of granite, literally, before wasting time on an i-beam.  Railroad tracks are only slightly better.  You would be far better off hunting down a solid chunk of steel, even if it's mild steel.  A sledge-hammer head is a great anvil, if small, and will allow you to build some very nice stuff.  

 

Forge:  Any hole in the ground will work.  Look through youtube and watch how smiths in nasty thirdworld countries work.  No fancy cast-iron forges and sweet blowers.  Most times, there's no electricity.

 

Tools:  You don't need nearly  as much as you think you need.  Again, watch those videos and pay attention to the lack of tooling they have.

 

You live in America.  This is the greatest nation in the world, and even our poorest citizens are wealthy compared to the majority of others.  There is nothing you cannot achieve when it comes to smithing if you set your mind to it.  With $100, you can buy more tools at a flea market than the richest viking smith could imagine.  If they could make awesome pattern-welded blades with a tenth of the kit you can assemble, you really don't have any excuses.

 

Your only limitation is your patience and perseverance.

[Dan C]

Do you weld Adam? You can work around it if you don't but I'd highly recommend learning if don't and get a chance. Recent threads on arc welding FYI

[Frosty]

Got it in one Adam, apprentice = indentured servant who's eventual pay off is the opportunity to learn a trade.

 

I wasn't trying to say anything about you with my examples of guys wanting the easy way into the craft. I was just presenting one reason it's harder to get time with a blacksmith without learning enough of the jargon to communicate. When you run into enough guys wanting the easy way it can make you a little short with folk. That's not a good thing but it happens.

 

Part of what I'm saying is don't give up on the local smith. Pick up a little of the craft, be polite but be persistent. Maybe show up early with a box of donuts and coffee or maybe at closing with a six pack. Before showing up with a six pack I try to find out if there's an alcohol problem to avoid. the locals at the coffee shop are usually a good source of such and usually a good IN with the locals. drink coffee, shoot the bull, get to be a known character and your odds go up.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[adambieber]

Do you weld Adam? You can work around it if you don't but I'd highly recommend learning if don't and get a chance. Recent threads on arc welding FYI

No, I don't. some old military injuries get uncomfortable in certain positions. I did try to learn to weld when I got  out of the army but I couldn't maintain certain positions long enough or steady enough to become a welder.  I also almost died of pneumonia that year (last october) and had to drop out because I couldn't catch up no matter how hard I tried.

 

Got it in one Adam, apprentice = indentured servant who's eventual pay off is the opportunity to learn a trade.

 

I wasn't trying to say anything about you with my examples of guys wanting the easy way into the craft. I was just presenting one reason it's harder to get time with a blacksmith without learning enough of the jargon to communicate. When you run into enough guys wanting the easy way it can make you a little short with folk. That's not a good thing but it happens.

 

Part of what I'm saying is don't give up on the local smith. Pick up a little of the craft, be polite but be persistent. Maybe show up early with a box of donuts and coffee or maybe at closing with a six pack. Before showing up with a six pack I try to find out if there's an alcohol problem to avoid. the locals at the coffee shop are usually a good source of such and usually a good IN with the locals. drink coffee, shoot the bull, get to be a known character and your odds go up.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

Ah sounds right.

Unfortunately he lives two hours away and I have a wife to take care of as well. While she's very supportive, I also have to think about her needs and wants as well. She would be totally bored watching lol. I was, however, watching blacksmithing documentaries on youtube last night and learned quite a bit.