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I Forge Iron

Aspiring hobby blacksmith in New Mexico


Mike Romo

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Greetings everyone,

 

I have been lurking for a few weeks and absorbing as much as I can.  The range of experience here is nothing short of staggering.

 

I must say thanks to everyone for sharing their knowledge, experience, and encouragement to all.

 

I have always been fascinated by working with metal and have done quite a bit of hobby welding over the years.

 

After much thought, I used Youtube and other sites--hadn't found IFI yet, to fabricate a small propane forge which works quite well.

 

I managed to remember some solid steel slabs I had laying around and stacked them up on a homemade stand that is now my makeshift anvil, weighing around 185# with stand.

 

I found an old leg vise on craigslist and made contact with an old smith by the name of Leif Gonnsen who provided much information and encouragement.

 

I had a couple of hammers, and some welding gear, so I started heating and beating.

 

I'd love to make contact with any IFI members in the Albuquerque area--I currently live in the Tome, NM area, but am building a home in Abq.

 

My real job is as a Captain with the Albuquerque Fire Dept and with only a couple of years until my planned retirement, I'd like to learn a craft and perhaps turn it into some earnings.

 

Thanks in advance for any guidance anyone can provide.

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Good Morning and welcome to this world.

 

The best advice I can give is, Don't be in a Hurry. Start with little things to learn how steel moves (the first thing I give my students is a container of Play-Dough or Plasticene, it works exactly like steel but you can manipulate it in your hands), don't be afraid of making mistakes. ABSOLUTE MUST; PROTECT YOU!! Wear safety glasses and hearing protection, Gloves are optional (you can control the hammer with better feeling, without gloves). Don't work in a poor ventilation area (Propane needs Oxygen too, it's byproduct makes you sleepy).

 

There are a few good books that you can learn a lot from, the Blacksmithing Primer is one. It is written in understandable language so it is easy to follow. Rome wasn't built in a day. I wouldn't recommend starting by wanting to make a sword (unless you wish to never finish your first project).

 

First; learn to move material, make lots of hooks. Not all the same design, learn what you will like and dislike. Make Honey out of Dog P--p. You will              learn to pick up scrap metal instead of walking by it.

Second; Start making your tools; punches, drifts, chisels, etc.

Third; Learn how to make Tongs; Start with easy tongs, then make nice tongs. be proud of your work (make something that you will be proud of using).

           Making the tongs, you will learn to punch the rivet hole with your own punch. Don't be afraid of finding someone in your area to help you or          ask questions of. The Internet is one thing, a hands on mentor is better.

Fourth: If you think you have enough tools, you don't. You will be forever creating something to make a job easier.

 

There is no END. There is no time when you will have learned enough. Every day you will learn, you will learn another way of making something or decorating something, there is no wrong way of doing something other than not starting.

 

Yeah, I'll shut up now. Enjoy the Journey!! :) :)

 

Neil

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Welcome aboard Mike, glad to have you.

 

There are folk close to you you can get together with and a few are most likely here so it's just a matter of time till you're connected.

 

I was going to make a little joke about fire getting in a person's blood but I got beat to the quip. <sigh> A lot of the IFI gang are fire fighters active and retired, good company all.

 

Keep your eyes pealed for a better anvil, a stack of plate will work but a lot of energy is lost in the contact interstices. Don't get hooked on having to have a London pattern anvil virtually any heavy single hunk of steel will do the job, a flat area is good but not necessary. A post vise is a gem, a bench vise just won't do what a post vise is designed to do. Both is best but never take a big hammer to a bench vise!

 

A couple more little things about us here, we LOVE pics, shop, equipment, tools, work, mistakes, scenery, kids, dogs, whatever. We also LOVE good questions and you'll end up with guys jumping to answer them, even if we have to make stuff up.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

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I 'm not sure exactly where you live now, but you have one of the best blacksmith teachers in Frank Turley located in Santa Fe, NM.  Give him a call. Time with Frank will be well worth it and will speed up your development immensely. All the advise given above is good stuff.  Good luck.      

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Mike-

You are more than welcome to attend the next meeting of the Southwest Artist Blacksmith Association. It will be on our website http://www.swaba-abana-chapter.org/

The December meeting is always one of our best attended. You'll meet some of the very best smith's that live in Los Lunas, Tome, and Bosque Farms. Please PM me if you'd like more info or to just get together,

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Howdy from East TEXAS!! and welcome to IFI!  I second that, join SWABA!!  Great bunch of folks and excited to share their knowledge. I try to hook up with them usually in Sept during the NM State Fair and play in the fire with them. Have missed a couple of the last years tho.  Not only is Frank close but so is Robb Gunter and Sons in Moriarty (did I spell that right?;) ) Again, welcome and have fun!

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Thanks everybody.  Glad to be here.

 

I feel like I am off to the right start.  Yes, fire is fun!!

 

I had already looked up Turley Forge and am working on attending a class this next year--schedules, finances, and life can generally make that a bit difficult, but I will persevere.

 

My books are already stacking up and Youtube has taken on a life of its own for me.  

 

I have a couple of hooks made and a couple of pair of rather homely tongs, but they do work and it will get better.

 

I like the idea of playdoh and its comparisons to hot metal.  The vids from Brian Brazeal and Alec Steele are very enlightening.  Sounds like it's time to go back to the actual toy aisle of the store.  

 

SWABA is on my list, PM incoming FatFudd.  

 

Thomas Powers, I went to paramedic school in Las Cruces back in the early 1990s.  GO AGGIES!!!  I'll be down there in November teaching at the EMS Conference.  Perhaps we can touch base for a couple of hours?

 

I need to learn the pic posting thing, can anyone point to a link?  I have several pics already of my forge, vise, "anvil", and the stuff I've cobbled together.  I'd love some critique and advice.

 

Thanks again,

 

Mike

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Sure, be glad to see you.  When will you be down?  The first weekend in November is the Medieval Fair where a lot of the SWABA south people will be forging on-site.  I've also been doing a "lite" beginners class on Wednesdays at a friends house in western El Paso---about 38 miles from L.C.  (And have been planning a trip over to LC to go hang with Pep sometime!)  I may even make it to the December SWABA meeting.

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Hey Mike (and anyone else that would like to attend the Dec 7th SWABA meeting) I got your PM.

It will probably be a while before the info gets posted but the meeting will be at Tom Hanson's shop in Placitas,NM.

It starts at 9 am. Bring something for Iron in the hat and a dish for the potluck. Directions will be posted on the SWABA website a few weeks before the meeting.

This is usually the largest meeting of the year and the Iron in the hat draw is usually pretty nice. 

Thomas Powers, I hope you can make it, its been a while since you could attend. We do understand your logistics issue tho!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Click on "More reply options at the bottom right. When the window opens at the bottom you will see "attach Files". Click on "Choose files" and then select the picts you want to upload and add. I'm betting you can also link from an account, but I don't do picts that way so I can't help you there.

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Here are my first smithin' projects.  Pretty rough.

 

BTW, Thanks DSW!!

 

First two pics are my flat jaw tongs made from 1/2" rebar.  Third pic is a couple of hooks I made out of the hot cut ends of my first failed tong jaws.  

 

Fourth pic is a set of bolt head tongs/v-jaw tongs....still undecided.  Need to finish them by drawing the reins out and welding on some length.

 

Fifth and sixth pics are of a rather homely set of box jaw tongs

 

Seventh and eights are the "ultimate" tongs I gave a shot at today.  Reins are still unfinished, but they seem to work.  The jaw shapes are pretty rough, but maybe some filing will make them fit well.

post-46406-0-07987900-1382659486_thumb.j

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post-46406-0-80983700-1382660090_thumb.j

post-46406-0-52631100-1382660100_thumb.j

post-46406-0-98441000-1382660110_thumb.j

post-46406-0-40831800-1382660122_thumb.j

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Thanks Frosty.

 

I just calls em like I sees em Mike. They look better than my second pair and lets not even talk about my first. Keep them so you can go back and look at them as your skills improve. It lets you see your progress and is very reassuring when you're up against a tough one.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

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  • 5 years later...

Hi I am very new to Iron work and I was wondering where I could find an Anvil, Tongs and Hammers in or near Albuquerque, NM? I really don't have the cash to buy a $1000 anvil so any suggestions would be amazing. I am getting my first Gas Forge at the end of the month so I would like to find some tools as well.

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Welcome aboard, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the gang live within visiting distance. Telling us in one post isn't going to stick in our memories longer than it takes to open the next one. Having it in the header puts it right there every time we read one of yours.

An anvil is anything you use to beat something on, good improvised anvils are: RR rail, mounted on end is most effective, most any shaft stock more than 2" round or square, again on end. Steel plate over 2" thick, on edge, any heavy piece of steel say train coupler knuckle, these have a number of useful shapes, broken truck axles on end flange up.

Why do I keep saying on end or edge? The effectiveness of an anvil is largely related to the depth of rebound, how much steel is directly under the hammer. The longer the distance to the far end the better. 

Hammers are easy, any smooth faced hammer will work just fine. Don't go get yourself  a big heavy hammer till you've developed good hammer control and the sets of muscles to use heavy without rapid fatigue or injuries. I recommend not using more than 32 oz. as a beginner and like drill hammers. They have shorter handles which makes control easier. 

Why do I seem to go on about hammer control? Hammer control is everything to a blacksmith, sure there are other things that absolutely require good control but if you can't control the hammer then there's no point to the others. Go to: garage, yard, rummage, etc. sales you find good hammers for next to nothing all the time. Besides cross peins, ball peins are on my buy it list if the price is reasonable. Look for heads with broken or missing handles, putting new handles on hammers is a necessary skill anyway, doing it to save lots of money is very blacksmitherly. ;)

Tongs are less common but they're out there, keep your eyes open all the time and tell EVERYBODY you meet you're looking for blacksmith tools. This is the "" and works for anything you're looking to find, buy, acquire. Do a search with your favorite engine and include Iforgeiron in the search terms and it'll hit on whatever material is on Iforge. The site's search function is poor, so don't bother with it. For example: (TPAAAT Iforge) will hit on the topic's many pages of description of the technique, how to do it, how it works and testimonials from folks who have used it. I'll let you do the search and find out what the heck I'm talking about. :ph34r:

Anyway, it's almost as hard to find tongs as a good used London patter anvil. However tongs aren't so necessary, work with stock long enough and you can hold the cool end in your hand without tongs. Once you've developed basic smithing skills to a decent level of proficiency making tongs are good projects. Not really a beginner project but get a few basics down and tongs are pretty straight forward to make.

While you're at garage sales look for: chisels, punches, crow bars, Allan wrench sets, etc. These are in some cases ready to go to work when you get them home, while others are medium steel and make good stock for making tools. Chisels, punches, etc. I don't use as is go into the coffee can as future stock for tools as needed.

One of the beauties of blacksmithing is making your own tools. There are few things a person with a fire, hammer and anvil can't make even if you need to make the tools to make the tools. And believe me there are few things that feel as good as using  tool you made with your own hands. 

Frosty The Lucky.

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Amen  Frosty,

Good advice. One point to add.

Do not forge with a carpenter's claw hammer.  The face, of it, is made of soft steel and it will deform and could then spall.

Yah,   use eye protection.

Cheers.

SLAG.

p.s.  Welcome to the club.

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