I'm new and I really need advice and help

[TEXASTOAST0303]

Good day to everyone!  My name is Derek but I have always been called "Toast" by my friends, so feel free to just call me Toast. I am 33 years old. I am really excited about this but I'm in need of guidance in many areas.  This is where you guys may be able to help. First I would like to tell you about myself.

I grew up in South Boston, most of that time I was in foster care.  I don't have very much family left. I decided to get away from Boston when I was 17 years old by joining the Army.  I served for 5 years and was an E-5/SGT until I was injured in Iraq during the initial invasion in 2003.  I am still dealing with many different problems from that today.  I have not had much time for anything else besides my health.  What I have put the remainder of my time into is my wife and two kids.  I met my wife while stationed at Fort Drum, NY and I decided to stay where she grew up in Watertown, NY.  Since I was medically retired from the Army and I do not work anymore, the doctors have been telling me that I really need to find something that I'm intrested in to keep me busy and my mind off my injuries and health issues.  Since I was young I have always wanted to get into blacksmithing and specifically blades but with all that has gone on with me it is something I have had to forget about.  Now that things have calmed down with me I am dead set on starting to learn.  My biggest issue is getting all the tools required.  I don't have the money to just go out and buy everything (living off a fixed income from DOD).  I also know that I will need a forge that won't be complicated for me to control because of my disabilities.

So, this is where I hope all of you will be able to help me with.  How can I get good tools and a small dependable forge without costing me too much?  I have tools that I have collected over the years but they aren't blacksmithing tools.  I'm really hoping it won't take me too long to collect everything that I will need.  Any info will be greatly appreciated. Maybe if anyone has some good basic tools that they are looking to get rid of we can work something out. Thank you guys so much. 

[Charles R. Stevens]

Thanks for serving, and for your sacrifece. Joined up at 17 myself. But i was out and luckaly missed desert sheild. 

Anything we can do just ask! Tho I do suggest doing your home work (atleast read the sticky's in an area of interest and the last 72 hours of posts) and then try to post your questions, coments and advice in the approriate areas so others who either arnt brave enugh to post or havent joined yet can find them. 

[the iron dwarf]

you can make a forge quite easily a bbq and a hair dryer will work or even a hole in the ground.

you will need:

something to get metal hot - charcoal BBQ maybe

something to hit the hot metal with - a hammer

something to put the hot metal on when you hit it - any heavy block of metal, in some parts of the world a sledgehammer head would be thought of as a great anvil

something to hold the metal - vice grips will do as a start

metal

 

first thought read all you can here so you dont waste money on rubbish

 

you can make tools as you need them if you have the things listed above

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard Derek, really glad to have you. Thank you for serving, it will be my honor and privilege to help you however I can.

It's a common misconception of folk getting into most any trade that they need ALL the tools. Not true blacksmithing is in our brains not the tools, the tools don't actually do anything they're just extensions of our minds.

To get started you need a fire, something heavy and hard to beat against and something to beat with. Oh yeah and something to beat, that's the fun part, well one of the fun parts. When ever you get a chance read the sections here, there are thousands of pages of info on almost any blacksmithing topic you're interested in.

Your basics are easy peasy. A forge is nothing more than a place to hold a fire of the type you decide to use. Being in NY smithing coal is available, charcoal can be bought or made, making charcoal is pretty thoroughly covered in the solid fuel forges section. A propane forge comes in two basic types, gun burners (blown) and naturally aspirated. (NA) Either propane forge type will do the job and there are I don't know how many posts on making, tuning and using propane forges, bunches by me.

If you go with a solid fuel forge you'll need an air blast, cheap and good enough lives at garage, yard, etc. sales for a buck or two in the form of blow driers. If I find one with a dead heat coil I offer to take it off their dump run load for nothing, folk rarely want money for one that doesn't dry hair. You don't want hot air going into your forge, it's a waste of electricity. There are lots of other ways to make air blasts, from auto heaters to bathroom exhaust fans/blowers, etc. If you like to tinker you're going to LOVE blacksmithing.

An anvil is anything hard and heavy enough, an old sledge hammer head works nicely but there are a world of anvils just waiting to be used. A length of shaft on end, say 3-4" Sq or round makes an excellent anvil because there is so much steel directly under the hammer. Fork lift tines are being changed out all the time and provide an outstanding anvil stood on end with part of the angle left for a "heal". Of course you could torch and grind it into a horn but horns aren't nearly as necessary as many folk think. RR rail is another outstanding field expedient anvil, on end moves metal better than laying flat but laying flat provides good shapes to work on. Just don't get hung up on turning one end into a horn. I have two outstanding anvils and rarely use a horn other than to do a little drawing and any curved bottom die works a treat.

Charles has posted some pictures of delightfully excellent end mounted rail anvils and the shapes you can grind. Seriously outstanding anvils.

Hammers are any smooth faced hammer. ANY ONE. Don't start out with a 5lb. single jack sledge your skills will suffer but not as much as your arm and elbow. 2lbs. is a good place to start and it can be most anything with a smooth face, I like to start folk with a 2lb. driller's hammer they have shorter handles so new guys have better control and they're heavy enough to do serious work. The heart of this craft is control, once you learn good hammer control moving to heavier and more specialized hammers is only a matter of adjusting, not learning a skill. There's a big difference.

Not to be nosy just tell me to butt out and I will but I'm going to ask. What are your disabilities? They may require some original thinking to work around and get you to making things at the anvil. That's my only reason for asking, purely practical reasons. Heck, we can swap disability stories and how we're dealing, I have a load.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

[Charles R. Stevens]

Your not the only ine facing chalanges and looking for work arounds, thats why I suggested posting spacific questions in the other areas of the site. Jerry took a bump to the head, Some cant stand, others are missing limbs, others like me are reality chalanged ;-) acctualy emotinaly chalaged but reality chalanged sounds like more fun lol. 

 

[DSW]

Stupid "forbidden" message.... if an admin/ Mod can move this it where it belongs would be appreciated.

 

If you look at my wine rack thread that I just made, you'll see a number of home made tools that I had to make for the project. Many blacksmiths make their own tooling as they go along depending on the project. Tools can be small things like the dies I made to do the bark texture or the scaling hammer that I picked up cheap and reground the head on to texture leaves, or more serious things like the hammers I've forged in the past.

 

Also I don't know what access you still have to the military system. Since you are medically retired, I'm guessing you may still have access to the base and it's rec facilities. When I lived on base out in Seattle I was often amazed at what facilities were open to base personnel that never really got used. We had a fully equipped wood shop available to anyone who had base access as part of the Rec program. The Sub base near by had a fully equipped auto shop complete with welding gear and OA torches. the wood shop our base had would be of use for say making and sanding handles for knives for example. Then there were those areas that were "unofficially" open if you knew who to talk to. Base maintenance shops, ships repair facilities, motor pool etc, where they had all sorts of tools that were seldom utilized, but were on hand in case they were needed. Swinging by to talk "shop" with the guys, bringing a few cold ones at the end of the day or a few trinkets you made, might get you access to all sorts of stuff like industrial drill presses, mills, lathes etc if you talked to the NCO in charge and no one was using the gear.

 

I'm constantly browsing CL, flea markets, yard sales, used tool shops and antique store looking for stuff I might be able to use at the right price. Most of my forging hammers have come this way, as have a bunch of files and chisels, punches and so on. I picked up a nice vise cheap one time at a yard sale, Not the standard machinists vise, but a blacksmiths post vise. You never know what you may find. I'm also always alert for stuff someone has stashed in their barn etc. When talking to folk, I'll often ask if they have anything blacksmithing related. You never know what you may find. The woman who runs the 4-H archery program I help out with has a bunch of stuff they are slowly uncovering at their old farm. I've located 2 really nice post vises and what appears to be a forge blower or two. I've asked for dibs on some of that if they decide they aren't going to keep them. It also doesn't hurt that I've made her a few forged things in the past. Last year a large cooking tripod for camp fires, this year 2 or 3 forged towel bars if her nephew doesn't weld up something for her.

 

Look around and see if there isn't a blacksmithing group in your area you can join. Many times guys often have older tooling they have "out grown" when they upgraded to something else that they are happy to pass along. They may also be happy to help you forge things beyond your skill set or facilities. I took advantage of the facilities and skills of others when I forged my hammers a few years back. I had access to someone with the skills and knowledge to do so, and a power hammer to forge out the heavy stock, so I took advantage of it. Also meets are great places to learn new skills either by helping, or simply watching and asking questions. You might also look into what classes may be offered in your area. Many community colleges offer classes in welding and some offer classes in smithing or casting that may be of interest or use to you with knives. Many places offer deep discounts to vets and many programs are free. Also check out what might be offered in night classes at local high school votech centers. I've helped a number of guys work on their forges when helping teach welding at the local tech school nights.

Edited July 28, 2015 by DSW