I've not had a chance to use my forge for a few years now and its been grating on me for ages. 

Circumstances forced me into rented accommodation, where I cannot use my forge. I have everything safely stored up and I would love to use it again. Not least because I have just joined a historical reenactment society and being able to make things would be hugely beneficial.

I can't for the life of me think of anywhere sensible to set up my forge. I thought I would ask you good people and see if you can come up with something.

Any thoughts?

 

9 minutes ago, TomN said:

I have just joined a historical reenactment society and being able to make things would be hugely beneficial

Ask the other members? 

They'd likely be best placed in your area to offer advice, and another member may even be able to help you out if you're contributing your skills back to the group

Truck, van or trailer and drive to a location were the local council won’t give you flack?   

On 1/23/2018 at 5:40 PM, JustAnotherViking said:

Ask the other members? 

Sadly none of them could think of anywhere sensible. Should have mentioned that in my original post, but it was late and I was tired. 

Not sure on what the rules are for just using a forge randomly in public....I imagine not very welcoming!

Ask around in your area at any workshops, garages, industrial sites, fabrication shops, etc. Say that you're looking to rent a corner of someone's workshop or yard on an occasional basis. You might find someone willing to let you use some space on a barter basis. I don't know what your tooling is like, but you might need to be prepared to tote everything in before each forging session and back out again to storage when you're done.

The furniture company I used to work for had (in addition to its own woodworking, finishing, and warehousing areas) an extra workroom that we rented out to a cabinetmaker doing custom (bespoke, to you UK folks) work. He was a total nutcase (with great taste in music), and his rent payment certainly made things easier for us meeting our monthly budget.

Here we have parks with BBQ pits, anything like that near you ? Charcoal in the forge, and maybe a hotdog or hamburger on the side in case anyone wonders what you are doing

Are you near any farms? May ask a farmer if you could borrow some space. The only other suggestion would be to see if there was an industrial area that you could set up in-welding shop, mechanic, etc..

I like what Charles suggested. Set up in the back of a truck or van and do some guerrilla smithing.... 

I was facing this same problem last October.  I was wanting to learn blacksmithing, and not only did I not own the tools, but also had no place to work as I live in an apartment.

What I ended up doing was getting in the good graces of the local historical reenactment village.  They have a blacksmith shop already set up with donated tools, but nobody to work there.  They let me work there for free whenever I want to, and in exchange I draw visitors in and do demonstrations.

 

Trey,

Welcome to the group.

You're off to a good start.

SLAG.

Thanks, glad to be here!

My first port of call would be a farm. In my area there's a farmers buying co-operative that sends out newsletters to its members - if you don't fancy walking up to a farmer's door then that may be a route?

A friend of mine found himself in a similar situation (apt. living) and had to put all of his equipment in one of those self storage units close to him. He was there one day and started talking to the manager about blacksmithing.

He was able to get permission from the manager to set up his coal forge & anvil outside the unit and forge there. It became a popular attraction and he even had others try their hand at hitting hot steel (sort of like a weekly hammer-in).