Hello, ferrous friends. I'm a 32-year-old paper process operator hailing from southeastern Finland. I've always had a careful interest towards all things handmade. I've been dreaming of picking up blacksmithing as a hobby for nearly a decade, but never really got around to it.

Some years ago I finally bought a low-grade 5gk cast iron anvil and put together a cruddy forge-like out of an old tire rim. I made a simple L-shaped coal poker that's actually still in use in my parents' sauna. Well, shortly after that fun afternoon... something(honestly don't know what)... happened and everything blacksmithing-related was put to the back burner. My own fault, naturally. Shouldn't start a hobby, no matter how interesting, without a friend or a mentor. Always have someone to cheer you up or kick your butt if/when you have a hard time keeping your stuff together.

Anyhoo, I'm here to learn. The amount of information available may be bordering on terrifying, but I will persevere! And ask silly questions(After Googling first, of course)! I Hope the curmudgeons won't eat me alive...

Oh no, *never* alive!  Spitted on a Lund Spit and roasted over a nice charcoal forge fire maybe...

As I recall you are not our first smith from Finland so you might dig around and try to find someone to be a forge friend---I just did a web search on my browser with Finland and iforgeiron.com as the search terms and turned up some interesting stuff....

Hakkaa päälle is not the motto of the curmudgeons; but "ask clear and detailed questions" may be...

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. Ah the curmudgeons only bite when provoked and never eat anything but oysters and sprouts alive. Ewwwww! 

My first fire rake lives in the house next to the wood heat stove. I had to make another one to use in the coal fire. Ah, a good tool is a good tool where ever you use it.

So what disaster put you off? We love solving problems and even answer repeat question without too much griping. Usually. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard.  My advice to you on dealing with the terrifying amount of information here is to approach it one problem ata time.  Meaning, you should choose a goal, determine what steps you need to take to complete it (this is likely the first bit of reading), and then read up to learn the bits you need to move forward.  If you just dive in and start reading it can turn into a rabbit hole.

You will be just fine, some times the curmudgians treat all of us as their own children is all. If you model your next efforts after your ancestors I think you can restart you hobbie with less up front work and more fun at the forge. Anything I can reasnably do from this side of the world just ask.

Tervetuloa porukkaan!

It's always nice to have more Europeans on board! Shoot your questions, don't worry you'll have the answers.

Bests:

Gergely

Wow, didn't expect such a warm welcome. Maybe it's the spit roast... 

My inability to get things started seems to be the root cause for the hiatus. Pair it with low self-esteem and you get a rather inactive fella. But hey, turns out it's mostly about neurology; I'm freshly diagnosed with attention deficit disorder(ADD for short), and getting medication for it some time this year. Thumbs up it's gonna help de-clog my brain a bit

Squirrel!  I shared an office for a couple of years with a fellow from Finland here in the high desert of the American Southwest.

Many of us have ADD (and worse) I would recomend not using an electric blower! Lol. Gas is ok if you don't leave it at welding heat. For me anything that I have to keep enugh of my attention on to keep all the hamsters running in the same direction with out exasting myself with high end thinking is infact meditative, so once you accurier the skills it may be just what the doctor orderd. 

23 hours ago, Meadowgrove said:

5gk cast iron anvil

Yes, you do have ADD -- Anvil Deficit Disorder. Not to worry: this is easily treatable with large doses of iron.

There are some really good threads in the anvil section of the forum about how to make an improvised anvil out of a big chunk of steel. Take a look at some of the things folks have done before, and be inspired!

@Charles R. Stevens relieving to hear I'm not alone with the headbuzz. That hamster reference is spot on!

@JHCC worry not, I have my sights set on a promising target, I actually made a thread about it in the anvil section yesterday. What should I do the cast iron one? Make a frying pan out of it?

1 hour ago, Meadowgrove said:

What should I do the cast iron one? Make a frying pan out of it?

Sell it, and buy steel and fuel.

ADD  just means you're born to muti task. I tend to ADHD myself and my hamster wheel got knocked out of round by a tree. 

Keep the anvil you have if nothing else it'll be a good bench anvil for soft metal and light work. My bench anvil is a wear plate off one of the snow blowers I scrounged from the heavy duty shop's scrap dumpster. 

If it has a hardy hole even better.

Frosty The Lucky.

Frosty  never thought of it that way. I have to  exert myself to get the simplest things done. In the past, any attempt to multitask has lead to the hamsters escaping from the cage and running away.

I'm going to keep my little anvil. It's my first after all!

Their are coping strategies and skills that help, medication is just one tool. Medication will give you a bit of breathing space in witch to learn to apply those skills. Learning to muscle threw the distractions and noise is difficult to say the least. But it can be done. Insure that your doctor sets you up with a cognitive therapist who can help you learn those skills.

Heh, my intro thread seems to have turned ned into a support group session. Not complaining at all! Talking of this stuff in public mostly leads to ridicule, so this is a nice change. 

Charles Stevens  That's exactly what I need, some breathing space so I can concentrate on developing my concentration skills. The future is looking rather exciting...

I know, learning disabilities (check out my spelling) and mental health issues (I am bipolar and have PTSD) seem to still be fair game for prejudice in the general public. Not here, we won't stand for it. Not Just Glenn and company but the membership at large. We all have something worthwhile to contribute to IFI and society at large, even if the world full of trolls we live in does not appreciate that. 

I was not diagnosed untile I was an adult myself, I learned to focuse so tightly on tasks that I don't here peaple talking to me, infact I can become obsessive about a task. That and a unhealthy amount of caffeine...

 

 

Best way to start is to choose a project, let us know what it is, and what you have to work with. You will receive multiple suggestions, and information overload. Best to slow down, choose one path and let us help, at your pace. We want you to succeed, and get excited with your progress. We sometimes forget that you have things to do other than blacksmithing. (grin) 

Welcome to the forum.

On 8/21/2017 at 9:24 PM, Meadowgrove said:

Frosty never thought of it that way. I have to  exert myself to get the simplest things done. In the past, any attempt to multitask has lead to the hamsters escaping from the cage and running away.

I'm going to keep my little anvil. It's my first after all!

My hamsters hang around but are easily distracted. My hamsters are of the OOOOH what's THAT? Horde. (just looked that up. )

Picking on people isn't allowed on IFI. If you want privacy use PM.

Frosty The Lucky.

On 8/23/2017 at 4:25 PM, Charles R. Stevens said:

a unhealthy amount of caffeine

There is such a thing?

Not in my opinion, but I have had health care professional a express concern...

welbutrin and caffien trump welbutrin and riddelin in my opinion. 

Adderall was life-changing for my boy. 

Welbutrin and a tree finally kicked my nicotine habit!

Frosty The Lucky.

We all have something...an "ism" that makes us feel less than.  And we've all been tricked into believing that others have achieved some type of "normal" that we have not attained.  I pacify my demons by constantly learning new things and skills.  If I stop growing I fall apart.  So, welcome to the looney bin Meadowgrove , I sincerely believe you will find smithing therapeutic.  

Have you tried the Finland Blacksmithing site - click here?