How did you get started in blacksmithing?

[jimmy seale]

well, had the intrest for 25-30 yrs. and then one day my ol toolpusher(we were on seprate rigs) i ran into his wife that said mike had something for me at his house, went by there and it was a forge/blower set up by lancastor, and soon after i went to work in colorado where they have coal and it's been going every since- he really dosen't know what he done to me!!!

[mcraigl]

The person to blame for my addiction just happens to frequent this site a bit. I met Mike (Mike-hr) through a mutual friend when I needed a little fab work done on my boat trailer. Well, when I drug the boat over to his shop there were several anvils, a gas and a coal forge. And this most coolest looking machine I'd ever seen. His 80lb Perfect Hammer run off a flat belt to a big 'ol electric motor. Fast forward a year or so, and I helped Mike set-up a small power hammer for his old mentor Greg who was afflicted with mesothelioma. When we were all done, a bunch of folks showed up at Greg's for a small hammer-in and once I met all these great folks I too was addicted. Figured I might as well join the CBA so I could somewhat legitimize the time I spent hanging out at his shop. Now a couple of years later I'm finally getting my shop done so I don't have to forge outside, and I'm a basic 1 instructor for CBA.

[rhammersmith]

Got the "bug" about thirty years ago. My older brother started smithin' at home in the garage. Making blades and other cutting things. I watched and got sort of interested then let it fall off until I completed my career in the Army. Started working in IT after retirement. I absolutely HATE this IT stuff! So, bought a small 55 pound anvil, worked the surface smooth with files and am building my forge to treat the anvil. I've been stocking up on "maple" charcoal courtesy of my friend's old tree that we split, am collecting "steel". Some follows me home, other is donated. Been dragging the web for references, purchased a few "how to" books and have a series of tools that I'm going to build on my own.

[hammerkid]

Well my story ain`t to long :rolleyes:but here goes! I started about a month ago on 9-22-07 . I just turned 14 a week ago. My blacksmith teacher is on the hobart welding site his forge is th Sliver Moon Forge . I`ve been welding about 3 years I mig,tig,& stick weld. I got my coal forg done Friday night I `ll get Pictures this evening.;)

[waianvil]

I started 4 years ago went to pba meeting help from members enjoyed it so much that I went to school Hofi had a class at clarks blacksmith school and took that and help from Jr also has helped
have a shop of my own. which I practice and try to use patience. nothing comes fastThe people of pba help me a lot on blacksmith projects

[teejay]

Well I got suckered into blacksmithing,my cousins and I are all members of a tractor club and one of them stood up at a meeting 3 months before their show and announced that Teejay has an almost complete blacksmiths shop and is going to put on a 3 day demo for us!I had never lit a fire just collected tools to hang on the wall!
I asked some of the old timers in the club for some advice. I know that some of the old farmers had done some smithing for themselves. The advice I got was little gems of wisdom." Learn to swing a hammer with either hand so a year from now your shirts will fit right!"or my favorite "If you smell something stupid burning let go its HOT"
So I put a notice on what used to be forgemagic "Help teacher needed quick in C. okla."Well 2 people answered Jim Carothers telling me about the Saltfork group and Mills he had lit 1 fire! Found out he lived about 6 miles from me we got together banged around for the next 3 months and went to the tractor show.He brought a car or truck axel that was way oversize for what we actually needed and proceded to make a fire shovel out of it 16 hrs later we had a shovel that had been burnt,mangled and twisted. I use it every time I go to the shop, 7 yrs later it is still my most prized tool. Joined the Saltfork group that year and still in the process of learning new things every day.I thank my cousin at least twice a year now with dinner and some iron work now and then.

[John Martin]

Well, since I was little, my dad always told me stories about swords and medieval stuff and so on. I've read and watched all kinds of movies/books about blacksmithing, swords, dragons, so on. I started about a month ago when i went down a railroad and brought back like 20 spikes, and two plates, i use the plates for my anvil and i've bought three hammers to use and a pair of tongs that i made and a hand held vice-grip to use. I started about a month ago and have had many failed projects, but finished two knives (rr spike knives) and a pair of tongs that i proceeded to break when i drop a 30lb piece of steel on them on the concrete. So that's my story.

[brucegodlesky]

I've made knives for a long time in my spare time. Following a rather nasty encounter with a triaxle dump in 1999, I needed something to help rehabilitate myself so bought a grinder. After exploring the internet, I found out some guys beat their blades into submission :-). Sounded like a good idea to me. Things got real obsessive after that.
Realized I live in the middle of unused blacksmith equipment country.

[the_sandy_creek_forge]

I found my great-grandpa's anvil and rivet forge stashed in the back of one of the sheds. That jogged Dad's memory enough to remind him he had a blacksmithing book somewhere. I cut a door opening in one of the old grain bins that we no longer used and set up shop.
-Aaron @ the SCF

[Ferrous Beuler]

I got infected long before I got started, decades before actually. The first introduction I had to blacksmithing was Colonial Williamsburg in the early seventies. Took trips to Florida with my family as a kid to visit relatives and stopped at a lot of places on the way. Places like Mount Vernon, Monticello, many other antebellum plantations throughout the south and many had smithys. Also in the '70s took many field trips from elementary school to local places like Old fort Niagara, Fort Erie, Genesee Country Museum, Buffalo Historical Museum. Again and again, blacksmith shops and demos. I was hooked. I can remember bugging my 8th grade metal shop teacher, hounding him really, until he relented and showed me how to "run colors" on a chisel (why is there an anvil here if we never use it?) I must have been a royal pain in the xxx to him ( a ww2 B-17 tailgunner). After the service I got into welding and worked on rail cars and cement mixer truck drum bodies. Nobody it seemed knew anything about smithing or anyone who did. But the bug itched all through the years and wouldn't go away. I figured I would just have to get started on my own so around '99 I started looking for an anvil. A year and a half later I got one at a barn sale. In 2002 I broke down and dragged myself kicking and screaming into the 21st century- I bought a computer and got online a decade after the rest of civilization, libraries always seemed devoid of anything on smithing. Discovered abana and the local affiliate. Met some fine folks ( BTW all I've met so far in smithing are fine folks indeed). Now I still pretty much Forrest Gump my way through it on my own but it is a heck of a lot of fun, and I'm always learning- I hope that never stops. Dan:)

[Shane Stegmeier]

I probably got started in the fall of 85, I was in highschool playing in the SCA on the local university campus, and my best freind asked if I wanted to go out to his shop and play, I made some potatoes (ugly begginer pieces;-) and forged or helped in the forging of some axes, knives, and patternwelded stuff. I seem to remember being able to get practically every forgeweld I tried to stick like a gunshot. My senior art project in highschool was a beautiful phos-bronze and burgundy leather nasal helmet. My best freind Ernie helped me ALOT, it was years before I got to take lead(and keep it;-) In 1990 I moved out to California and did the young foolish starving artist blacksmith thing with Ernie, when he decided he wanted to move to Seattle I moved back home. (I squandered an awesome opportunity to learn blacksmithing while I was out there, insecure and fragile male ego the folly of youth;-) While I was home I met my wife and she had horses, I was a blacksmith, her farrier had a bad back, it was unavoidable I got tools and started blacksmithing and ended up working fulltime as a farrier (I suspect that I am about year 8 or 9 in the 10 year plan to get out from under horses;-) Started really smithing in ernest about this time, been going to conferences, and reading and utterly addicted to the internet. Did a major tool upgrade a few years ago and got a 75# utility style air hammer and have tried in my spare time to make a little money. I still hope to get out from under horses, and do blacksmithing full time, weither it is selling art, crafts, tools or teaching. We will see which path God open up before me

[Frosty]

I got started as a kid. Father was a metal spinner and put us kids to work in his shop as soon as we were aware enough to move around without slicing ourselves into lunch meat. Some of my earliest memories are sitting behind the tailstock of his lathe playing race car with the adjustment wheel while he spun. Dad's idea of baby sitting till I was old enough to sweep, clean and oil, don't you know. Attached is a pic of Dad spinning a radar dish of some sort in the basement, I was around four at that time.

Anyway, Father raised us, Sis and I, in a high production spinning shop, often working to ridiculous specs. While I loved working metal I burned out on spinning young. We moved to so. ca. around 57' and sometime around 60' I discovered fire. As anyone watching the news right now knows folk in so. ca. take a really dim view of kids playing with fire.

However, if you're blacksmithing you HAVE to play with fire. It was also a controlled fire with definite goals, iron melting heat isn't so easy for a 8-9 yr. old to achieve. Anyway, I started pretending to be a blacksmith so I could play with fire and hit things with hammers.

Mother finally put her foot down regarding Father's discouraging me from smithing, "learn a paying trade," was one of his mottos. Anyway, Mother just got tired of me taking her stove apart to make a forge and hammering on her countertops, using a chunk of steel I'd kiped from the shop as an anvil. She finally told him, "George, get him a forge and anvil, buy them, build them I don't care. Just get him OUT of MY kitchen!" It was one of the only times I heard them disagree and the ONLY time I heard one of them shout at the other.

I was maybe 9-10 and Father "loaned" me a piece of 2" x 4" x 24" rectangular steel bar. It was a drop from building a big spinning lathe or perhaps modifying one. In the pic of him spinning you can see the spacers he put under the tailstock to increase the swing so he could spin large diameter parts. There are equivalent spacers under the headstock of course. He also gave me a brake drum, a little advice and made me build my own forge.

If you keep pretending to be a blacksmith, sooner or later folk just assume you are one. I moved to AK in 72' and spent several years getting established and playing around. Then around 77-78' after a couple years working for the state I started wanting to play with fire again.

I started hammering iron again while in the field as a driller. While the other drillers were putting away a half rack a night after work, something I tried but just never quite got the hang of, I started heating found scrap in the camp fire and banging out things like skewers, branding irons, pokers, etc.

Finally I welded up a rail anvil, it's the little one on top of the Trenton. I welded rail into the web for additional weight, bringing it up to around 65#, shown in the pic of the heel. I welded the plate on top for a flat surface without knowing the rail was far better steel. The face plate has hammer marks and dings the rail wouldn't have suffered.

I packed the rail anvil and a minimum tool list around the state for years before I discovered I wasn't alone. One day while hitting a book store in town. Yeah, I read instead of concentrating on half racks, I was such a poor example of a driller. Anyway, there on the discount book table were several copies of "The Art Of Blacksmithing" by, Alex Bealer. Seems the head office or whatever, mistakenly sent a dozen copies to this branch and they were dumping them cheap. I bought a copy and the next day went back to get another. They'd sold them all before I got back but they still didn't think metal working books would sell!

Anyway, that was my awakening, there were how to books out there! I found out why some things I couldn't get to work wouldn't work, found out there were things I was doing you shouldn't be able to do. HA! Best of all it made me look for more books.

I had a decent library and a couple smith contacts when the internet went public in 91'. I was connected within 30 days, I was on vacation or would've been in line THE day. Anyway, within a few hours of getting online I'd discovered ABANA, ArtMetal and a couple other lonely voices in the aether.

Finally (bet you thought I'd NEVER finish eh?) I'm still pretending to blacksmith.

Frosty

[Bentiron1946]

I got started some thirty years ago when messing around while casting bronze. There was a lot of good heat going to waste so I started doing a little forging while the metal was melting. I bought an anvil and other equipment and the rest just sort of followed.

[primtechsmith]

sorry if it goes a little long but I want to share it.

I Grew up with both parents being mechanical engineers. They took me and my brother to Williamsburg one summer just to say they did. I saw the blacksmith shop and was entranced. All I remember(I was about 6 at the time) was a guy making, what I believe now to be nails. My Pop pulled me away after a few minutes and we went on our way...A few years later I remember asking him about blacksmithing and he said it was out dated and I should focus on drafting classes. So I did in High School taking a few classes...that was no fun so I went to college to become a teacher. My love for blacksmithing was only fueled by being really poor and not having a TV in my one room apartment so I just crusied the net reading stuff on blacksmithing. And checked out a book or two from the library.

Then I met Sarah. She is the most beautiful girl in the world...she came over to my place one evening and saw me looking at anvilfire on my laptop and said we needed to go to her parents' house on Saturday because she had something she wanted to show me. Saturday rolled around and we went to her parents' place. There was an anvil over the double doors of one of the buildings...

We went inside and I met her parents. Linda was awesome. Mike pretty much scared me the moment I met him. Really tall, really deep voice, really serious look like he would kill me if needed. Perfect father look! He showed me his forge and I began what I do best. Being obnoxious and talking too much(hence the long thread here...) After several months of me bugging him to death with questions I showed up one day and he handed me a hammer and lead me into the forge where he had another forge. My apprenticeship began right then.

There is a lot of cool things that have happened to me...married a great lady who decided I was an OK guy. And was accepted by her family not only as a son-in-law but as a member of Yesteryear Forge as well.

I am **** lucky to be a part of something like this. I consider myself a proud member of the Tanner family, and an extremely proud apprentice to Mike Tanner AKA "yesteryearforge". Mike is a great mentor and friend. I am becoming something more than I ever thought I could in blacksmithing and in life becuase of his guidance....he still scares the xxxx out of me and he will kill me at any moment. I am just glad he hasn't yet!

Peyton Anderson
Apprentice. Yesteryear Forge.
Amelia VA

[Frosty]

sorry if it goes a little long but I want to share it.

....he still scares the xxxx out of me and he will kill me at any moment. I am just glad he hasn't yet!

Peyton Anderson
Apprentice. Yesteryear Forge.
Amelia VA

"Good night Wesley. Sleep well, I'll most likely kill you in the morning."

You are a lucky guy Peyton.

Frosty

[ThomasPowers]

Did he make you forge the nails he'll use to nail you upside down to the wall?

Me I threaten my daughter's boyfriends with skinning them alive with an anvil dipped in kerosene...

Haven't had one that wanted to work in the shop though...

[adam cyphers]

Ever since I was a little kid being thrilled by my dads stories of how thebladesmiths of old perfected their craft and watching him work metal in one form or the other I've been interested but the bug didn't really bite till about two years ago matter of fact dad bought me my first anvil .made a brake drum forge and off I went.now I'm involved w the blacksmith guild of va.a better bunch of people I don't think I could find.though I haven't had the honor and joy of attending any of our hammerins yet but I'm close.

[GVR-4579]

I started when i was just big enough to use a hammer. My dad and grandfather both did it some and so i did too. I live on a farm and we used to also have a steam traction engine, and many other things that are fire realated. I also used to demo blacksmithing at a local fair until they got to foo foo for me.

[IRon_FOrgerI22]

My story is quite strange i was actually watching a show little people big world and they went to an old western town and they passed a blacksmith shop. They did not even talk about they just walked pasted it and i looked at it and ran to my computer and gooled blacksmithing and here i am blacksmithing.
Same here i have not started yet but i am almost there all i need is a blower and some lumb charcoal and i am ready to go. wooooooooooooohooooooooooooo!

[S.Willis]

In 1989 my family had quiet a few horses and I had the bright idea about saving some money and learning the shoe them. I done that for a while and due to a back and knee injury just couldn't handle it any more. I did love the hammer and anvil so started blacksmithing done a few craft fairs and was hooked bad. Landed a couple of resident jobs a historical parks over the years and then started my own shop. I just something I can't shake or get rid of. It is worse than any drug.

[Hunterbow Smithy]

When I was about 8 or 9 my grandparents took me to lower Fort Gary near Winnipeg. They had a working blacksmith shop there and I remember standing mesmerized, watching the blacksmith make a nail which he gave to me. I still have that stupid nail.

Several years later, a friend's dad made a small gas fired forge and invited me to try my hand at making a knife. Well, I beat on the piece of spring steel he gave me till I was too tired to swing the hammer and generally made a mess of the knife. And I have been hooked ever since.

[Mende]

I was reading about knives and swords. . .and saw how they're made. ..I thought my usual hammers and RR tracks were enough .but then i started reading more ..and collected everything blacksmith i could find. .and now i have a shop ...but not too much time 2 use it ( school) I still read a lot. .to keep the inner fire going ..and to keep myself from straying from this rather serious hobby ( like i did with the rest ..)

that's why i joined this forum actually :D

[RainsFire]

well, I suppose I started at a bonfire with my family, and a straightened coat-hanger for marsh mellows heated to red at the tip, I had a slice of railroad track my deceased grandfather used to straighten nails (hardcore furniture man.. so I dont really see why he needed nails, but to each his own I guess..) and a flat uncleated claw hammer to mess with.. I'de take needle nose pliers and make scrolls and flatten them into decorative little brands. Still fun to do every once in a while or on a cold night.

[RainsFire]

thats probably the point..

[RBrown]

Beleve it or not i did see it on tv. I saw a guy on pbs being intervewed he had a school up in north carolina some ware never did figure out ware. I caught the bug then and thought that woudl be cool to make stuff like that. A little while latter i found anvil fire and got some information on how to build a forge i built one and used a big pipe plug for an anvil for a while then my wife let me get a new anvil about 8 or so years ago. Iv gone slowley from having almost no tools to about all i really need to get a job done not all i want but about all i need.