So I just finished putting together my makeshift forge. Its a brake drum fueled by lump charcoal and a hair dryer. I want to practice this skill buy first making general tools ie tongs. Eventually I want to work up to making blades from o1 or 1095. Tips and advise is greatly appreciated

This is a question that has been asked again and again. Heres some advice. Look through the forums. There is an enormous amount of information here, but you need to look to find it.

welcome Brandoncw, glad to have you. first practice with mild steel and once you get the process down start using the tool steel. also tongs are something that should not be your first project, because their is a lot to get right and a lot of things that you can mess up. you can make twist tongs, which are a bit simpler, just google it. but like MDN said, their is a lot of information on this forum, and that this question has been asked many times. one more suggestion start with stock that is long enough to hold and not use tongs. 

                                                                                       Littleblacksmith

first Put where you are (location). then in the vas pool of blacksmiths some in your area can help you. Second start with tools like fire rake, shovel and stuff to make the operation of your forge run smooth. third learn to walk before you run hammer control and good body position so you protect you self so you can keep blacksmithing for years

Welcome aboard Brandon glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the IFI gang live within visiting distance. You'll learn ore i a couple hours with a knowledgeable smith than spending days or weeks trying to figure it out yourself.

As already suggested pull up a comfy chair, something to drink and snacks, you have literally weeks worth of high quality reading in the Iforge archives organized in categories.

Make your fire tools, they're an excellent place to start. Then before you can make togs you need those tools, you'll need a hole punch a hot chisel so you can cut stock, and rivet set at a BARE minimum. A chisel plate to protect your anvil ad chisel when you cut is a really good idea. Drill or punch a hole in it for a bolster plate to once again protect your chisel when you punch rivet holes. You can use the pritchel hole on the anvil to punch the bolster plate but tongs are generally too thin to bridge the pritchel without distorting. That's a more accomplished skill to pull off.

Making blades is another couple skills sets on top of blacksmithing, a specialization if you will. Trying to learn both at the same time is just begging to prolong the learning and increase the frustration. Once you've learned the basics of blacksmithing to a level of proficiency you don't have to think about every blow and tool then learning to work blade steel is only another material and some heat treating. you chances of success are much MUCH greater.

Ah, I see Francis beat me to the send key!

Frosty The Lucky.

 

Keep at it Frosty

 

3 hours ago, Francis Trez Cole said:

first Put where you are (location). then in the vas pool of blacksmiths some in your area can help you. Second start with tools like fire rake, shovel and stuff to make the operation of your forge run smooth. third learn to walk before you run hammer control and good body position so you protect you self so you can keep blacksmithing for years

 

I 

3 hours ago, Frosty said:

Welcome aboard Brandon glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the IFI gang live within visiting distance. You'll learn ore i a couple hours with a knowledgeable smith than spending days or weeks trying to figure it out yourself.

As already suggested pull up a comfy chair, something to drink and snacks, you have literally weeks worth of high quality reading in the Iforge archives organized in categories.

Make your fire tools, they're an excellent place to start. Then before you can make togs you need those tools, you'll need a hole punch a hot chisel so you can cut stock, and rivet set at a BARE minimum. A chisel plate to protect your anvil ad chisel when you cut is a really good idea. Drill or punch a hole in it for a bolster plate to once again protect your chisel when you punch rivet holes. You can use the pritchel hole on the anvil to punch the bolster plate but tongs are generally too thin to bridge the pritchel without distorting. That's a more accomplished skill to pull off.

Making blades is another couple skills sets on top of blacksmithing, a specialization if you will. Trying to learn both at the same time is just begging to prolong the learning and increase the frustration. Once you've learned the basics of blacksmithing to a level of proficiency you don't have to think about every blow and tool then learning to work blade steel is only another material and some heat treating. you chances of success are much MUCH greater.

Ah, I see Francis beat me to the send key!

Frosty The Lucky.

 

I live in mid Missouri USA pretty close to Jefferson city.  so far I've enjoyed just practicing the most basic skills, flattening, upsetting,  drawing out,  twisting etc. on scrap rebar laying around the house. I found it made my drum brake forge much much more efficient if I put a stainless steel bucket upside down over the top with a 2x4 inch hole near the bottom, I also cut the bottom of the bucket off and used a sheet of steel I had left from a welding project to make a cover so I could put  some more charcoal or wood in. It was so much more efficient that on my first trial I accidentally melted the end of the rebar off

Welcome, as said by a number already X out the forums sights here as there is a huge amount of info, one problem is all the pictures that were included by the writers have disappeared that are more than about a year old.  It is hard to understand some of the info from this and regional or international uses of words but the basic info is here like mining gold got to dig.  I've never considered making tongs a beginners idea, making nails maybe.

Brandon welcome aboard. Type in bamsite.org, & press enter and also google  the bam face book page.   Bam is the Blacksmiths Association of Missouri.   You'll get contacts & info. like sources for coal etc. They are having a get together in Dawn, Mo. very soon.   SLAG  (newly in St. Louis)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

35 minutes ago, SLAG said:

Brandon welcome aboard. Type in bamsite.org, & press enter and also google  the bam face book page.   Bam is the Blacksmiths Association of Missouri.   You'll get contacts & info. like sources for coal etc. They are having a get together in Dawn, Mo. very soon.   SLAG  (newly in St. Louis)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for that piece of info slag, depending on the distance I might just go to that

I also found a coal supplier in Mexico Missouri selling bituminous coal for 20 bucks for a 50 pound bag, is that a decent deal

Brandon check bamsite.org and scroll down to the bottom left side of the page and check out coal stations They sell 50 lb. for $14 (for members) & $12 if buyer picks it up. Dawn Mo. is, I think, northeast of Kansas City Mo. The meet up is happening in early April. Regards,    SLAG

Good Morning Brandon

Welcome to the Play Pen. Please put your location in your Avatar.

Check out your local Blacksmith Association. They will be able to answer a lot of your questions. There is a tremendous amount of information available here. it is available from the Home page, Pack your Lunch and read before you ask a question. If you ask a knowledgeable question, the Troops won't get P.O'd at you. You will then get a Good answer. Ask a question that has been asked many times, you will hear the teeth of the Dog. The dogs name is Crow-Mudgins. Most of the time he is sleeping, with his ears open.

Make a point of going to a "B.A.M." get together, it is worth Gold. Sitting at the keyboard gets you nowhere!!

Neil

 

11 minutes ago, SLAG said:

Brandon check bamsite.org and scroll down to the bottom left side of the page and check out coal stations They sell 50 lb. for $14 (for members) & $12 if buyer picks it up. Dawn Mo. is, I think, northeast of Kansas City Mo. The meet up is happening in early April. Regards,    SLAG

I just was looking through that page, turns out they we're the supplier I found in a Google search. Dawn is a little to far for me right now due to low on money and bad tires. I'm finding this hobby and these sites very interesting and can't wait to do some more smithing. I imagine actual coal will burn much longer than charcoal and cleaner too. Thanks for helping out with info guys. I really appreciate it

Charcoal is cleaner than bituminous coal. But charcoal does not get the forge hot enough to forge weld. But you can forgo that frolic for now while you do a lot of good smithing.Lorelei Sim's book and Alex Bealer's tome are worth buying. Get to reading .The information there will save you time. Also You tube has many smithing demonstrations, And check out the books that can be downloaded for free, here and at many other sites. The old books are still very good for most things in smithing.   SLAG.

26 minutes ago, SLAG said:

Charcoal is cleaner than bituminous coal. But charcoal does not get the forge hot enough to forge weld. But you can forgo that frolic for now while you do a lot of good smithing.Lorelei Sim's book and Alex Bealer's tome are worth buying. Get to reading .The information there will save you time. Also You tube has many smithing demonstrations, And check out the books that can be downloaded for free, here and at many other sites. The old books are still very good for most things in smithing.   SLAG.

The first forge welds I did were done with charcoal.  There were centuries of forge welding done with charcoal before coal was being regularly used. 

Coal is generally cheaper and does last longer but charcoal  is quite capable of forge welding.

I've also been using small chunks of oak that turn to charcoal and burn pretty hot so I think I'll just use my charcoal to get the forge going then use wood