I first started when...

[KpdRetired]

It always fascinated me, especially looking at things made prior to the Industrial age, purely by hand.  The local Historic Farm has a blacksmithing demo a couple of times a year, and a few hours spent watching the smiths at assorted Ren faires when I was younger kept the interest going.  Add in the plethora of youtube videos, and i finally got off my butt and did a one day class on making a knife from a railroad spike...now i want to put together my own setup where i dont have to drive a couple of hours, or pay $50 in tolls to use someone else's equipment.

[falsevacuum]

The first time I ever witnessed blacksmithing was on a lower/middle school field trip. The smith made a nail and showed everyone. I didn't think much of it.

Fast forward 10 years, fall of 2014, I was 20 years old and stumble across a YouTube video of some guy forging a knife or something. I watched all of his smithing videos and thought it was pretty cool, but it seemed like everyone says you need to weld your forge together. (I now know that's not true) I didn't have a welder, so I tabled the idea as a fantasy. Over time I thought about it occasionally and thought it would be pretty cool to do.

Then February 2015, and I was taking a class on theater tech to satisfy my art credit. I asked if they'd teach me to weld. They said yes, but never did. I kept bugging them about it, and eventually told me to come up with a project. Thought about for a bit and said "hey, what the heck, let's build a forge". I spent maybe 20+ hours researching forge design, creating drawings, and searching for parts. Soon enough I had myself a little charcoal forge!

Now I'm mostly trying to learn technique. I want to make myself a pair of v-bit bolt tongs, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist and keep saying "not good enough. Scrap pile!" Tool making is what really interests me. I dream of making my own hammer one day. Also I plan to make some adult toys for friends but that's another story

 

During the day I go to a small college in NH, studying CS. Currently trying to finish up my undergraduate thesis. I also work at a machine shop part time, but I was doing research full time for 6 months before this term.

[LeDrew]

I was always somewhat interested in Blacksmithing, but was always told it was a dead or defunct trade. I remember an old man that was a blacksmith in his younger days, he was in his 90's about 10 years ago. That's as close as I ever got apart from the movies. A couple years ago I saw an "instructable" on making a knife from a railroad spike... I figured there was little chance of finding the tools, or any railroad related items in this area, but it stuck. This spring I saw more and more of these projects online, then found old books on the subject, YouTube videos on the craft, and then I found myself with a new set of skills I just HAD to learn. I searched for weeks and found an anvil and a couple sets of tongs, built my own forge with some scrap materials (table from a cover plate from old switchgear from a power plant, hood from an old dryer drum and scrap sheet metal, legs we angle from old bed frames, tuyere from pipe that was once a basketball net support, brake drum from my old truck for the fire pot, and a small blower I found in a client's basement that they didn't want). After taking all that effort - I was hooked.

A a side note - For my day job I'm an Electrical Contractor.

[Worshipdrummer]

I have always had a drive to create.  It started with simple woodworking projects and progressed into furniture, then bow making (think archery not presents) then customizing knives and now into blacksmithing.  One thing I have noticed is that blacksmithing projects often involve aspects of all the other hobbies I mentioned as well; so I guess those were not a waste of time...