Mountainjack Posted November 3, 2015 Share Posted November 3, 2015 Howdy! I've been around blacksmiths all my life and have recently decided to try my hand at it as a hobby. I'm fortunate to have two friends that make their living forging knives and both have agreed to show me the ropes. One was kind enough to lend me an anvil and I ordered an Ellis forge. While Ive been waiting for that to arrive, I renovated an old structure into a small forging area. So far I've built the workbench and put cement board up on the interior walls to prevent fire damage. I'm in the process of covering the floor with sand. Also I should mention that after I ordered my forge, my coworker told me he had an old coal forge that he would give me!! So now I'll have both styles to learn with. These are the books I've ordered and am in the process of reading, or have read. A Blacksmiths Primer, The complete Modern Blacksmith, The Backyard Blacksmith, The Art of Blacksmithing, Practical Blacksmithing, The Complete Bladesmith. If I'm missing necessary literature please let me know, I love books. I've been in the process of learning MIG welding off and on for the last two years and recently traded for a very old small welder; but have decided to bite the bullet and buy a newer more powerful unit. My friend who is teaching me how to weld recently took me on a road trip to meet an older blacksmith. This guys forge and shop was amazing!! While there he showed us a belt sander he had constructed at a workshop for making knives. The design looks fairly doable so in the future my welding mentor and I are going to weld one up for the shop. I feel like my interests in smithing are a little scattered. I want to make knives and tomahawks, but I also get very excited when I see colonial hinges, hasps, candle holders and such. That said, I'm starting out slow and methodical. Right now I have cold pressed round stock sitting in my shop waiting to become hooks. My mentor showed me how to make a hook and told me to bust them out until all my friends are sick and tired of getting random hooks as gifts. Any advice, thoughts and random musings would be appreciated. MountainJack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judson Yaggy Posted November 9, 2015 Share Posted November 9, 2015 Welcome aboard. If you are ever in the Bristol area drop me a line. There are a surprisingly large number of us for one of the smallest states in the US, so if you would like names of other folks in whatever part of the state you are in let me know! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ausfire Posted November 9, 2015 Share Posted November 9, 2015 A mate of mine lent me this book: 'The General Blacksmith' - handforging techniques of the traditional country blacksmith. It is available through the website: http://www.tharwavalleyforge.com/articles/reviews/41-the-general-blacksmith Costs $40 (but that's only $30 in the U.S.) Young blacksmiths in Australia might find it a very useful resource, as it goes right back to basics as well as teaching forge welding techniques. I'm getting one for myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mountainjack Posted November 12, 2015 Author Share Posted November 12, 2015 Evening, Thank you both for your kind words! Judson, I live at the base of Mount Mansfield, on the Smugglers Notch side. I would love any and all contacts, once I figure out how to pm I'll shoot you a message. On this front, things are progressing swimmingly. In the past week I have purchased both an Anvil and a Post Vice. A coworker gifted me some tongs and a guillotine looking fuller. Also some basic hardy tools. Friday I'm going to go look at prefabbed steel sheds. The shop I was working on renovating is to small for my liking. It was 8 x 8 (8 x 6 with my bench) and I found myself bumping around like a bull in a china shop. I know that many people have worked and created beautiful pieces in that space requirement, or even smaller, but that aint me. I brought in my buddy to try double hammering and we were cramped in tighter than a can of grizzly dip. I saw a prefabbed unit at the lowes website that was 12 x 14 for less than 500.00. I priced out what it would cost me to buy the equivalent in materials and build it myself and I can't compete with that price unless I milled my own wood and i kinda like the idea of steel sides. With winter coming I may have to figure out a partial insulation and also ways to cut out windows to shine light on my anvil. That is all to be seen when I check out the shed in person and see if its quality. If its not I may build a smaller 12 x 12 shed of partial steel and wood sidings. Anyways, thats the progress over here. Good tidings to all of you and if you hunt, good luck this upcoming season. MountainJack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 You might want to add USA to your location to differentiate between yours and the other Green Mountains around the world---say in Queensland Australia where they are not worrying about the winter at the moment... Steel runs a problem with condensation in some weather conditions; but does act as a good wind/sun block. My forging shop is a basic post barn: 20'x30' with 10' walls and a higher peak. The only wood in it is the 4 telephone poles that hold the roof up, (there are actually 2 15' long bents as one end is hooked into the original all mental shop building. I built mine from free propanel---hail damaged and overruns from replacing hail damaged roofs in my town. Free "telephone poles" our electric coop gives away their used ones. Mine were pulled after only 10 years to widen the railroad tracks. (gives them about another 80-90 years uselife out here---especially as they are now inside out of the sun...) I did buy a set of old steel trusses for the roof and I bought new purlins, 2 panels of fiberglass roofing and SDST screws to put it all together. Oh yes the 2 doors: one as a 10'x10' roll up door sold to me by another smith used and the other was from when our church replaced an exterior door and I got it for a donation... I use the couple of strips of fiberglass in the roof to serve as skylights, diffuse working better than bright in my experience. Of course out here the sun tends to be blinding and I even put the skylights in the other end of the building from my forge area to help mute it even more...Snow load---what's that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hotanvil Posted November 16, 2015 Share Posted November 16, 2015 Well another Vermonter. I have not been here for a while but get back here every now and again.Not doing a whole lot of blacksmithing these days I mainly make knives Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mountainjack Posted November 16, 2015 Author Share Posted November 16, 2015 Good morning, After examining the steel sheds at Lowes I decided to they weren't for me. So, I took my chainsaw, took down a wall in the shop I was renovating and expanded it another 2.5 ft. I have the new wall framed up and am placing windows in it that will strategically shine on my anvil while leaving the area where the forge will be in the somewhat dark. My mentor started me on a stock removal blade last thursday which is exciting. He's teaching me how to achieve different grinds on his grinder as well as how to conceptualize the different dimensions of a knife. I also got to help him make damascus billets by doing all the pre-grinding and preparation of metal. Its neat to help him create the billets and then return later to see what he's forged out of them. Mr Powers, your shop design sounds like a sight to behold, I'm jealous of your fair weather. Last saturday it snowed here and the temps are beginning to feel like winter. Hot Anvil, making knifes is what I'm learning to do. If you ever want a visitor, shoot me a pm, I'd love to meet another fellow Vermonter. MountainJack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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