68 years old, needing a new hobby and thought I'd try my hand at smacking steel. I had limited welding experience many years back but never forged a thing. After 6 months of trying to find a decent used anvil I bit the bullet and bought new, pricey but worth it ... at least in my humble opinion. Built a base for it and made 3 pairs of tongs. The first 2 pairs are not very pretty but serviceable the third is a little better. I gave a try at creating a touchmark and it came ok, when I gain more experience and the work gets better I may even get to use it.

 

You are off to a great start.  Keep up the good work.

Very nice anvil and stand.  What are you using for a forge?

A tip: if you don't want to fight the "upwards banana" curvature of your blades, pre-curve them in the reverse direction before starting your bevels.  The steel will always attempt to curve up and away from the edge being thinned out.

5 minutes ago, Latticino said:

You are off to a great start.  Keep up the good work.

Very nice anvil and stand.  What are you using for a forge?

A tip: if you don't want to fight the "upwards banana" curvature of your blades, pre-curve them in the reverse direction before starting your bevels.  The steel will always attempt to curve up and away from the edge being thinned out.

Thank you for the kinds words and advice.

Coal was my first choice but that would get us thrown out of where we live so I settled for a single burner propane for now.

Thought i had the upwards banana curve figured out but got lost paying more attention to the half twist.

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. That's a great touch mark, I wouldn't change it a bit. 

Nice anvil, have you radiused an edge? You need at least one edge radiused so you can set a shoulder without a sharp inner corner making a stress riser.

Going to buy or build your forge?

Frosty The Lucky.

14 hours ago, Latticino said:

A tip: if you don't want to fight the "upwards banana" curvature of your blades, pre-curve them in the reverse direction before starting your bevels.  The steel will always attempt to curve up and away from the edge being thinned out.

It is also possible to "bend back" by laying the to be edge on the anvil and strike the tip. The contact surface with the anvil is long unlike the contact to the hammer so the "blunting" is usually very little and can be corrected in the next heat.

5 hours ago, Frosty said:

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. That's a great touch mark, I wouldn't change it a bit. 

Nice anvil, have you radiused an edge? You need at least one edge radiused so you can set a shoulder without a sharp inner corner making a stress riser.

Going to buy or build your forge?

Frosty The Lucky.

Thank you and I agree the touchmark is fine as is ... everything else needs to be better

Yes, I radiused the edge on the opposite side of where I stand while working.

I built the forge with about a 170 cu.in. interior and one burner. In a corner of the shop I have an old 20lb. propane tank. Removed the valve and filled with water and bleach twice in case I decide to go larger with 2 burners.

2 hours ago, gote said:

It is also possible to "bend back" by laying the to be edge on the anvil and strike the tip. The contact surface with the anvil is long unlike the contact to the hammer so the "blunting" is usually very little and can be corrected in the next heat.

Thank you for the advise, I will remember that next time. Actually I was aware of the need to "bend back" prior to drawing out the blade. New to forging I was concentrating on heat and hammer blows and simply forgot to do it.  

Not a problem you can heat a blade still in the forging stage up, place it on the anvil with the bow up and tap it down flat with a hammer or chunk of wood.

Wooden mallet on a wood block will bend, straighten adjust hot steel without damaging the surface texture. I make my shop mallets from yard sale baseball bats. An unmodified bat is another perfect adjusting tool commonly called a "Whocker".

Frosty The Lucky.

for when things get wonky

Good to know, I've got an old Cocobolo mallet left over from my woodcarving days.

I'd save that for woodcarving.  I generally use a chunk of firewood and if I get fancy I'll drawknife a handle or turn it on the wood lathe.