HB Anvil find

[ThomasPowers]

Find a local steel dealer and check how much a 3/8 sq piece 20' long costs. (generally I can by a 20' stick for about the same price as a 4' one at a big box store...)

Also check with a local non-chain mechanic's shop, I made a bottle opener from an UNPLATED wrench and was offered all the scrap I could haul for it.  (I'm letting him store it for me as the stuff I can use is a common item with such shops...)

[Frosty]

Having fun yet?  Farrier's files and other high carbon steels aren't really good beginner stock heat management is touchier than mild. Like Thomas says just buying a stick at the supplier is an excellent way to learn. You get to work with a consistent known material that is reasonably forgiving though you'll get to destroy your share. 

Go ahead and make up some test coupons, smaller pieces of whatever you're working with and see what temp ranges they work best under. No sense risking a whole file when you can snap a couple pieces off the end. Chuck it up in a vise with an inch or so sticking up, lay a rag over it as a scatter shield and give it a sideways whack with a hammer. Viola! a test coupon you can see what color it will be when it starts sparking (burning), you get to see how cool you can work it without it breaking, etc. 

This is a basic type test to determine the working properties of found (scrounged) material. It's a whole skill set of it's own and takes time to learn. No sense trying to learn several skills sets at once just buy a stick of steel and learn to move metal. 

It's a KISS thing you know. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Rookiesmith]

Thanx for all the input , We will have to get after this and get some time and work on beginner type projects. 

[ThomasPowers]

When I teach my beginner's projects are chosen as being ones it's hard to fail at even with poor hammering skills or low endurance.  Gets students feeling like they *can* do this if they are willing to put the time in on it.  (What puzzles me is all the folks who will spend 120 hours learning to play a video game but expect to start forging like an expert from day one...)

[JustAnotherViking]

Funny you should say that.

I was told of a chap who came down to the local group to try blacksmithing for the first time after becoming an expert at it in a game called skyrim. 

Basically you run around gather up materials (ingots), click a few buttons et voila, you have forged a sword. 

After many hours of this game and several spent at game 'forging', the person is question was quite frustrated when trying to move real steel for the first time because it wasn't as easy as the game.... Imagine that. 

[ThomasPowers]

Pretty common these days to run into the "expert smiths" from the video games.  Used to annoy me; now I just hand them a hammer and ask in an eager voice for them to show me something!  Those that accept the challenge are generally very amusing to watch and I watch them carefully for safety reasons!  Generally doesn't take they long to learn that they know squat about real forging and a lot of what they know is actually *wrong*.   (I even have a special hammer with a soft face for them to use so they don't ding up the anvil face; it works perfectly ok on hot steel...)

[Rookiesmith]

I was in architectual millwork my whole life and wood you layout,cut,shave, massage with grits to babys behind finish . Metal not so much .

[ThomasPowers]

Down south we have another use for grits....  But metal you sand with higher and higher grits till you get the finish wanted as well.

[Rookiesmith]

Funny , I cant wait to get something to the point of  buffing rouge . Wood working was something I had to do , metal working is something I want to do.I will get there , have to make pole shed set up work for awhile until barn residents no longer around.

 

Animals never leave my property , they live good life(at my expense) until fertilizer . Wife wont have it any other way! Im sure I am not alone here!

Sorry to get off topic