I was thinking of apprenticshipping for a farrier even though most likely I'm not going to be one do you think its a good idea to do. Tell me what you think

Depends on where you want to end up with your smithing skills. Any hammer is going to help improve you overall skills but if you're end goal is more "blacksmith/artist" then you'd be best served concentrating your skill gains in that arena. IMHO.

listen to a farrier please.
if you don't want to be a farrier DON"T geta farrier apprenticeship

what you will learn...is to be a farrier...NOT...a blacksmith!!
granted there is hot work in farriery, but it's all specialized to horseshoes.

that's my $0.02 i am a professional farrier, i've had apprentices that were looking for a guy to teac hthem blacksmithng and when you working as a farrier, you jsut don't have time to stop in the middle of the day to show someone how to make a "S" hook

Son

Not to mention the inherent danges of Farrier work. Why risk it if it's not what you are going to do?

Another thing to think about is that shaping horse shoes is very exact if the farrier is skilled, so what is likely to end up happening is you clinch nails and finish feet for awhile before you are likely to be doing anything in the fire.
On the other hand shoeing pays really well for the time spent actually under the horse, you might want to consider it as a part time job, if not I think you would get farther in forging by buying as many videos as you can find and copy making EVERYTHING you see done on them.

Thanks for all your feedback and I understand what you saying. I am just having trouble doing blacksmithing for I am 14 and its hard to get access to a forge and an anvil. Any suggestions.:)

Save up money and go to one of the blacksmithing classes at Peter's Valley? Join the local ABANA affiliate and hook up with a local smith through there? Build your own?---I once built a starter kit for under US$25 including forge, blower, anvil and basic tools and the most fancy tool I used was a 1/4" drill...

IForgeIron.com > Getting Started
IForgeIron.com > Lessons in metalworking > Blacksmithing
IForgeIron.com > GS0003 Blacksmithing Groups

We have blacksmiths that are younger than 14 years old that have presented Blueprints on IForgeIron, so age is not an issue. Your desire to succeed is a much larger issue. Read and follow the suggestions. Start with what fuel is available and build a forge to use that fuel. Contact the New Jersey Blacksmiths Association - NJBA.

Ok thanks I will check that out and Thomas powers if you would kindly tell me how you made a starter blacksmiths kit tfor $25 I would really be thankful.

IF you read the Lessons in Metalworking > Blacksmithing it was in Lessons #3, #4, and #5.

a 55 Forge (side blast)
IForgeIron.com > Lessons in Metalworking Blacksmithing > LB0003 Blacksmithing Forges

a ball peen hammer
IForgeIron.com > Lessons in Metalworking Blacksmithing > LB0004 Blacksmithing Hammers

a chunk of metal
IForgeIron.com > Lessons in Metalworking Blacksmithing > LB0005 Blacksmithing Anvils

I used to live in Holmdel NJ (mile 114-117 on the GSP) I used to find some smithing tools at Englishtown Fleamarket.

Large chunks of industrial steel should be available from the gritty old industrial areas and there is still a lot of old farm equipment being over grown in fence rows in central and southern NJ. Abandoned cars in the pine barrens for springs/axles, etc.

Important thing is to be *safe* when harvesting metal and step 1 is *ASKING* it's amazing what you can be given if you ask. I had an ornamental iron work company give me free access to their scrap dumpsters before and got hundreds of pounds of great smithing metal from them as well as the odd piece of real wrought iron when they were fixing a historic fence that had been hit by a car. Also ask at welding companies.