NBarbarino Posted November 9, 2016 Share Posted November 9, 2016 I was born and raised just outside of Pittsburgh, PA. Many of my relatives have been or are currently employed in a steel related industry. I haven't followed that line of work but metalworking has always been an interest of mine. My first experience with forging was at 10 years old. I made a decent fire, threw charcoal on top and ran a pipe underneath it all so I could use an old hand held bellows to get up to temperature as much as possible. I threw on an old aluminum truck from a skateboard and made a mess of things as soon as it turned orange. I ended up with a large, broken rock and bits of deformed aluminum but I was so proud to have even brought it up to heat. Since then I've largely stuck away from looking to build my own forge, mostly because I wasn't able due to location. Now as I've gotten older I've decided to finally pursue my dream hobby. I have a 1.5ft piece of rail on the way and an angle grinder. Aflyer a weekend I should have a decent RR Anvil. I plan on using a brake drum and piping to create a forge. I have an almost unlimited supply of rr spikes that I will begin with. I am NOT planning on making knives for a long while. I plan on starting by thinning out the spikes and working on tapering. Once I've got S hooks down I'll probably make some candle sconces if I can. I'd love to make knives but I have a lot to learn before then. I also have an antique belt grinder that I will post about in another thread. Most of my posts on this forum will largely be detailed questions. I am a complete noob but I have a decent idea of what I can realisticly accomplish and start to work with. Thanks for reading, if you made it all this way! I look forward to absorbing as much metal wisdom as possible. Tl;Dr: Complete beginner looking to make a forge, anvil and start with the basics. Many beginner questions and threads to follow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted November 9, 2016 Share Posted November 9, 2016 Welcome, and please think about adding a general location to your profile as *many* questions in smithing end up having a location factor in the answer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C-1ToolSteel Posted November 9, 2016 Share Posted November 9, 2016 Welcome NBarbarino! From reading your post I can tell you have a good head on your shoulders. It is nice to hear from someone who has a healthy approach to learning. Give us some more detail about the forge, and send a sketch of your plans, and we can help you get started. As for the anvil, railroad track is decent. That's what I learned on. Just be prepared to become an angle grinding expert. I put six hours of grinding into mine. Start small, and don't get ahead of yourself, and you will have a blast. You are also lucky because there are a lot of blacksmithing tools in PA. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted November 9, 2016 Share Posted November 9, 2016 Welcome aboard NBarbarino. from a fellow "just outside of Pittsburger" I'm south of pittsburgh myself. Like C1 said sounds like you have a good head on your shoulders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NBarbarino Posted November 9, 2016 Author Share Posted November 9, 2016 Thank you, gents. I should've clarified, I'm from Pittsburgh but I currently live in Illinois just east of Saint Louis. I visit PA frequently so I'll be sure to look out for tools while I'm there. I'll try to sketch up an idea for a forge here soon. Again, thanks for the welcome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted November 10, 2016 Share Posted November 10, 2016 Welcome aboard, glad to have you. It is good to hear from folk with a realistic idea of the learning curve. Do you know what kind of solid fuel you plan on using? A brake drum is too large for charcoal and bottom blast forges aren't particularly good for charcoal either, very wasteful. Coal is a little better but a brake rotor is a better fire pot the smaller size is less wasteful of fuel and easier to control. Fire control is one of the more demanding skill sets involved in blacksmithing. A few points about anvils. An anvil is ANYTHING you beat things on. Horns are a pretty recent invention and aren't universal, lots of professional smiths all over the world don't have horns on their anvil. So, don't get the idea you need to put a horn on the rail to make an anvil. With a little practice you can do virtually anything on the face you can on a horn some things are easier but it's not essential. Standing the rail on end makes an excellent anvil for the increased depth of rebound. A 100lb. stick of rail laid flat on it's flange will flex under the hammer and about 2'10" of the rail isn't being used unless you have a REALLY big hammer. The same rail stood on end isn't going to flex at all, it'll be driven into the ground like a tent peg before losing energy to flex. All the impact energy from the hammer will be returned as the compression wave rebounds from the far end and the energy literally hits the work from below while the hammer is still smooshing the stock. How about the size of the rail anvil's face stood on end? For all practical intents and purposes the anvil face only needs to be SLIGHTLY larger than the hammer face. There are lots of ways to straighten your work that are better than hitting it on the anvil face. Honest. Charles Stevens has posted a few outstanding messages with pictures of possible ways to make a true multi tasker anvil from RR rail. I highly recommend giving his posts careful consideration before you start grinding. A few of the gang here have built some excellent stands for end mounted rail anvils. Remember, there are 2 ends so you can have LOTS of tools on one piece of steel. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted November 10, 2016 Share Posted November 10, 2016 Appologies. It's in the topic saw Pittsburgh in the post and got side tracked. anyway, where around Pittsburgh? You could always stop by and hammer in the shop. I'm usually willing to share the little I know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NBarbarino Posted November 14, 2016 Author Share Posted November 14, 2016 On 11/9/2016 at 6:51 PM, Frosty said: Welcome aboard, glad to have you. It is good to hear from folk with a realistic idea of the learning curve. Do you know what kind of solid fuel you plan on using? A brake drum is too large for charcoal and bottom blast forges aren't particularly good for charcoal either, very wasteful. Coal is a little better but a brake rotor is a better fire pot the smaller size is less wasteful of fuel and easier to control. Fire control is one of the more demanding skill sets involved in blacksmithing. A few points about anvils. An anvil is ANYTHING you beat things on. Horns are a pretty recent invention and aren't universal, lots of professional smiths all over the world don't have horns on their anvil. So, don't get the idea you need to put a horn on the rail to make an anvil. With a little practice you can do virtually anything on the face you can on a horn some things are easier but it's not essential. Standing the rail on end makes an excellent anvil for the increased depth of rebound. A 100lb. stick of rail laid flat on it's flange will flex under the hammer and about 2'10" of the rail isn't being used unless you have a REALLY big hammer. The same rail stood on end isn't going to flex at all, it'll be driven into the ground like a tent peg before losing energy to flex. All the impact energy from the hammer will be returned as the compression wave rebounds from the far end and the energy literally hits the work from below while the hammer is still smooshing the stock. How about the size of the rail anvil's face stood on end? For all practical intents and purposes the anvil face only needs to be SLIGHTLY larger than the hammer face. There are lots of ways to straighten your work that are better than hitting it on the anvil face. Honest. Charles Stevens has posted a few outstanding messages with pictures of possible ways to make a true multi tasker anvil from RR rail. I highly recommend giving his posts careful consideration before you start grinding. A few of the gang here have built some excellent stands for end mounted rail anvils. Remember, there are 2 ends so you can have LOTS of tools on one piece of steel. Frosty The Lucky. Thanks for the welcome, Frosty. I'll look into using a brake rotor instead of a brake drum. Seems better for fire control like you said. I think I'll start with charcoal and actual coal/coke where I can find it. I plan on taking pictures of the place I'd like to set up the forge and drawing some pictures so I can accurately ask for advice. I checked out the vertical rr anvil and I love the idea. I'm worried that, as someone who has novice hammer control, if starting on a vertical rr anvil would just seem more difficult to learn on. But. I really love the idea and I see ALL the benefits. I think I'm going to make both. I have access to short lengths of rail and spikes. If I had a 6-7 foot piece of rail I could cement it into the ground about half way and have a decent anvil. Sound like a decent idea? On 11/9/2016 at 8:14 PM, Daswulf said: Appologies. It's in the topic saw Pittsburgh in the post and got side tracked. anyway, where around Pittsburgh? You could always stop by and hammer in the shop. I'm usually willing to share the little I know. I grew up in New Castle, north of Pittsburgh but the family I visit is all around Penn Hills and Plum. Maybe in the spring time I could swing by on a visit. Thanks for the invite! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted November 14, 2016 Share Posted November 14, 2016 No problem. Just pm me if you will be in the area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted November 14, 2016 Share Posted November 14, 2016 Naw, don't bury it on end. There's enough in that length for two 3' anvils aprox. 100lbs. +/- AND you can profile both ends for different tools. this gives you the equivalent of 4 specialized anvils. About more trouble learning hammer control on a small anvil face. It's always faster breaking in on the more difficult aspects of a craft. If you learn on a face where slop doesn't count much you'll develop bad habits you'll have to unlearn if you switch to a smaller face. If you've ever driven tent pegs you're close enough to hit the end of a piece of rail, it's all fine tuning from there. If you're going to be using charcoal you want to use a side blast forge rather than a bottom blast. A bottom blast tends to spread the fire everywhere in the charcoal pile so you'll be burning it by the brake rotor full, non-stop while the air is on and charcoal doesn't go out or die down so much when the air is off. A side blast blowing into a trench concentrates the fire in a smaller volume it'll grow long but you can just keep the charcoal pile limited and keep the air blast turned down. The air blast will only go so far horizontally depending on how hard it's blowing. Blowing up through the pile however can't stop till it escapes so the whole pile burns. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C-1ToolSteel Posted November 14, 2016 Share Posted November 14, 2016 You shouldn't be hammering on the anvil. You should be hammering on the project. As long as the anvil is as big as your hammer you should be OK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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