Hi guys, Blacksmithing has always been an Interest of mine but Its not up until recently that I caved In built myself a forge, bought a cheap basic anvil, some basic tools etc I also managed to find a few pieces of scrap steel, mainly rebar, flat stock and square stock.

 

I plan on booting the forge up and giving It a try on the weekend and I was wondering If anyone had any suggestions of something I could try to make first? I was thinking of making some punches and chisels.

 

Any suggestions are welcome!

 

David H

Make S hooks. Make tapers, try upsetting, try a simple leaf. 

...... What kind of forge? Come on now, we want specifics! And pictures! Haha

Just now, Daswulf said:

Make S hooks. Make tapers, try upsetting, try a simple leaf. 

...... What kind of forge? Come on now, we want specifics! And pictures! Haha

My forge Is a rickery ol' thing made from some left over gas tanks, I found some plans online and based It off of those. My next plan Is to make some better legs, or just mount It to something. It Is more stable than It looks though! I'll be using coal to as a fuel source!

That setup looks like it's going to waste a lot of fuel. But hey, try it first. How deep is the fire pot? Gatta at least give it a try  let us know how it works. Almost looks like it might be better for charcoal but I'm not sure and I know others will chime in to help you out. 

Gatta say tho, nice fabrication skills. I think with the fab skills you will end up with what you need. Start simple and build up. I'm still building up  

I'd make some tongs too if you don't have some already. And if you do then I would use them to make another pair I'd start with the rebar ....well I did start with the rebar, actually. I made some slitter/drifts that actually held up quite well.... plus my first simple tongs were rebar. Still use them sometimes lol. The aforementioned anvilfire.com has lots of illustrated tutorials but dont forget to look right here at the blueprints found in the Articles section. 

Nice forge.  Since you're using coal make some coal tools.  A rake, shovel, poker.   And those are all good ways to practice the basics.  tapering, bends, drawing out ect.

 

Start with the rake. You need one and you cannot get it wrong. It is nice to have the first thing you make a functional tool. Flatten one end of a round bar. Bend it 90degrees and shape the other end as a kind of hook/handle.

 

nice looking forge. yes for sure a rake and shovel is a good first project. I would offer you two suggestion about your forge the first is that front part weld in a piece of sheet metal so you are raking coal into the fire pot. That is the most common design flaw that I have seen over the years. the second is do you have a hole on the back side in case you have to heat the middle of the bar the back of the tank would limit the length and the size of material you can use.