Tips for beginners,

1 a clock, keep a big easy to read,clock in the forge , it's easy to loose track of time, when you are concentrating and this helps remind you exactly how long something takes to forge. And it is easy to get lost in what your doing, look up and realise you should of picked the kids up 2 hours ago.

2 a pen and paper, write down EVERYTHING, with little diagrams showing distance betwen points, how long was the taper, what size was that scroll etc. When some one asks you to make something six months after you made your prototype, you don't have to figure it out, just look in your book.

3 paint your punches and chisels a bright colour to make finding them in a dim, messy forge easier.

4 tidy up every day.

5 don't be afraid to work in the colder ranges if you are not sure on something or try to get something dainty just right, it's a lot easier to see what is happening to cherry red stock than bright yellow,(rounding square stock is a good example).

6 warn people visiting your forge, not to hit the anvil, for some reason every non smith who comes in seems to pick up the hammer and smack the anvil.

7 don't be a hero, mind your ears and eyes.

 

Traditional slate chalkboard.

Soapstone so you can mark things on your anvil for repeatability

have a surplus of PPE, before I got that idea I often went without PPE because I didn't feel like going back home for the glasses, looking for my hearing protectors and so forth, now that I have a few pairs of glasses and I always leave my hearing protectors on my anvil and usually my glasses too, I've pretty much always had them on, I'm working on getting a jar of ear plugs in case I misplace my hearing protectors

Good Morning Dabb,

Sometimes you want Ear Plugs inside your ear protectors, as well.

Neil

Cabinets or wheels. Detritus can’t get under cabinets, and wheels alow you to move things to sweep. 

Keep the foot area around your forge and anvil free of things to trip or stumble on. 

i also have a thermometer mounted at head height near my forge so I can monitor how hots its getting. easy to get dehydrated when working in 95F shop and not realizing how hot it is

A lidded stein is great way to have your drinking water/gatorade/lemonade/? in the smithy with you.  It keeps the dust and scale out of it as well as wasps, yellow jackets, flies and the heavy stoneware can be prechilled to help keep it colder longer.  Note that the good ones will also cover the rim to keep insects from where your lips touch as well.

I just got a lidded bucket for my quench oil.  

Trying to keep things quickly accessible by the vise. Drilled a couple of 1/2 inch holes and jammed Sharpies in them. I can grab them with one hand. Cap stays in the hole.

  That's a handy idea Lary.  Do you give them a little twist while pulling them out to help keep the caps in the hole.  Have you ever tried metallic silver sharpies?  They show up suprisingly good on steel, brass and copper for layout and marking.   Not so much on shiny material or rough rusty stuff, though.  Maybe it's been mentioned before....

Thank you Scott. I just push them in tight, did this a couple of days ago. I suppose I could glue them in and just keep using the same cap when a pen wares out. I don't think I've used those metallic sharpies yet.  

Plain old colored pencils also work better than black markers or graphite pencils.  I also like soapstone markers because the marks, being a mineral, tolerate heat better than most media.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

  Part of the reason I mentioned the silver sharpie is it seems to tolerate heat.  YMMV.  I would think colored pencil marks would melt.  Soapstone blows off, in my opinion.

I’ve recently seen “white out” pens used for marks that are somewhat visible at forging temperature. I prefer a chisel mark or center punch mark…

Keep it fun,

David

Used to be Silver Streak was the marking pencil for dark metals and Red Streak for al, stainless steel, etc. I was rummaging around a pawn shop to see what bargains had washed onto that shore and discovered a box of Silver Streak on the close out table, I held the box up and asked the store keeper for the asking price, hoping for a steal of a deal at @ $20. He yells back, those silver pencils? Yes. He says "they're worth a buck." There's another box of crappy red pencils by the same company, take them both or nothing."  

After paying for my day's loot he hands me a soup can of used Silver Streaks and says get these out of here too. I keep getting them with torch sets and welding stuff. What is it with welders and silver pencils? I shrugged and said, "We melt them down for the silver." We shared a laugh and I went away grinning with a song in my heart.

Frosty The Lucky.

  The only reason I posted a reply about sharpie silvers is it would be something to try and fit in his holes. 

You're torturing me Scott! Do you have any idea how hard it is for me to resist a, "fit in his holes," straight line? 

I've gotta go pour a mug of iced tea, this is already too dangerously close to picking it up!

Frosty The Lucky.

  Lol.  I had a snappy reply typed out.  I'll just let it go... you know how these things go off track and into the ditch.

I deleted a few snappy replies before stepping out of the get "moderated" lane, myself.

Frosty The Lucky.