Freddy Young Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 I do extremely minor metal working in my limited free time. Mostly looking for people who do the same in or around Odessa Texas for questions and advice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the iron dwarf Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 welcome to the mad house, im not local to you but I expect someone will be along soon who is Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freddy Young Posted July 26, 2018 Author Share Posted July 26, 2018 Hopefully! One of the biggest issues is that I have no idea where to get metal from. I can get railroad spikes and scrap metal from work but I have no idea what grade or type it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the iron dwarf Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 do you know anyone who works on cars, springs, torsion bars, drive shafts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwistedCustoms Posted July 27, 2018 Share Posted July 27, 2018 Welcome Freddy. You are smack in the middle of oil country and you are surrounded by good, inexpensive forging material! Every pipe yard in West Texas has about a million feet of "sucker rod" that makes great tooling and can be had for cheep! Ask around till you find someone who works on land rigs or hauls pipe and your metal scrounging worries will be over! If you're not familiar with sucker rod ask around. There is such a surplus of it that lots of fences in Tx are made out of it. I haven't been out that way since the early 90s but Midland Odessa should still be a blacksmiths dream as far as materials go. Hot but low humidity and lots of steel! Half way between Cowtown and El Paso, man I used to hate that drive! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted July 27, 2018 Share Posted July 27, 2018 Welcome, and don't overlook "blacksmith road kill". I have found all sorts of stock laying on the side of the road that fell off of vehicles, when my wife and I go anywhere the passenger is the lookout, just be sure it's safe to pull over and pick it up, no steel is worth getting run over for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freddy Young Posted July 27, 2018 Author Share Posted July 27, 2018 Thank you all for the advice! I don’t think I know anyone who works on/with those things, iron dwarf but I can ask around. Twisted, I’ve been meaning to just go to some random metal yards we have around her and ask about pieces that they can’t really sell as they are mostly bulk suppliers. Irondragon, finding a safe place to pull over in the Odessa area is pretty close to impossible. We’re not well known for our driving skills haha but I will keep an eye out anywhere else we go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGGUNDOCTOR Posted July 27, 2018 Share Posted July 27, 2018 Let's see some pictures of what you make and we can give better advice for getting the proper materials for them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freddy Young Posted July 27, 2018 Author Share Posted July 27, 2018 Ummm I’ve only made a couple things so far. Like I have a whole bunch of railroad spikes so I’ve made a bottle opener I tried like one knife. I’ve tried using rebar for tongs but haven’t really gotten the time to go it and do it. Right now I’m just using what I’ve got for simple projects like more bottle openers. I’m trying to make a hammer a hatchet instead stuff like that but I’d like to eventually get into knife/ax making. I’ll have to find a photo of the two things I’ve actually completed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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