TheRailroadBanger Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 Ive had a foundry for about a year now but had kept my metalworking to solely melting aluminum down to ingots. I picked up a piece of railroad track a few days ago and decided to clean off the rust, and mount it on a base as an anvil. Other than that, I have no experience but am extremely excited to learn. If you have any important advice to a newbie, or if you are in the area and willing to teach a few things, please let me know. Thank you. -Greyson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 Propane or charcoal forge? Have you picked up a copy of "The Complete Modern Blacksmith" yet? Written very much in a scrounged and made do manner and so I think a great resource for folks in areas where it's hard to find stuff... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 Welcome aboard Greyson, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many IFI members live within visiting distance. A great place to start is in the basic blacksmithing and getting started sections of Iforge. The site has thousands of posts archived organized by category. No need to read them all but it doesn't hurt. The blacksmith's craft has a trade jargon, a specialized language of words, terms, phrases, etc. with special meanings. It can be hard to express yourself without having at least a grounding in the jargon so asking good questions is difficult and understanding the answers can be impossible. A lot of us were very happy to find a piece of RR rail to forge on. Don't let folk who think rail isn't a "real" anvil fool you, if you hammer hot steel on it, IT IS AN ANVIL. Period. If you have a long enough piece to stand it on end even better. You don't really need much more anvil face than the size of the hammer face and the ends of the Web and Flange make excellent dies and tools. Huh, what am I talking about? Jargon Greyson, it's Jargon. I see Thomas saved me the trouble of mentioning my favorite Blacksmithing book. It's gold, absolute gold for boot strapping yourself a smithy. I better go I have chores. <sigh> Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRailroadBanger Posted May 4, 2016 Author Share Posted May 4, 2016 Thank you for the timely replies! I just ordered the book that ThomasPowers suggested. By the way, My forge runs on charcoal. Frosty, I'm really looking forward to learning all of the jargon involved in the trade! Good luck with the chores! Thank you all for the help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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