Well, new to the trade here, started with making tongs and what not and have made a couple of blades from flat stock and so on... My problem is all of the learning technique is literature and web based.  Due to the new born and the one on the way I've had to concentrate on learning as I go... As there is not anything close enough or available enough for me to adhere to my life schedule.. so my question is , how do I efficiently draw width without drawing length? 

Forexample, I worked a horse shoe today for my brother (who is disabled and always wanted to be a blacksmith but just can't physically do it) who wanted a knife made out of a horse shoe... Whatever the reason may be that he wanted this I was more than happy to rustle up some shoes and give it a go.. I cut in half and took one piece and went at it.  Put a tip on it that he described and figured out where he wanted the blade and tang to meet and went to start putting a belly on the blade.  No matter what I tried it just got longer and thinner and I was only able to draw about a 1/4 of the original width for a belly.  Of course I know there is a distinct technique that I am not familiar with or that I am doing incorrectly... As I mentioned before that I am unfortunately restricted to being trial and error without guidance from a seasoned Smith.  I would really love some advice and will gladly admit any wrong doings in this process.  Lol all criticism is welcome of course.  Thanks for your time. Pictures available upon request

 

Welcome to IFI!

Please READ THIS FIRST, and then read up on basic hammer technique. 

general location please; there might be someone close to you who could show you the basics even with a weird schedule...

 Basically,Use a cross peen hammer to control the direction of your draw.

 

Make sure your hammer has a nice rounded cross peen; many sold new are so sharp they are best use for cutting hot metal!  My favorite one the peen on it looks like a piece of 1" diameter round stock. Very hard to put in cold shuts and too deep dings with it!

think of the iron as as a lump of dough and the hammer as a rolling pin.

The metal will move perpendicular to the pien. so, to make stock wider the pien must be inline with the stock.

 

Thanks peeps, I totally forgot I even posted this.  Thanks for the ideas and advice

 

Well, since it's 9 months from your first post, have you already figured it out?

If you haven't figured it out or anyone else is having this problem, JLPSERVICES has a video called directional forging that demonstrates it clearly in a way that is easy to understand.

Pnut

Been a year and nine months - this is 2019. Probably got it all figured out.