Hail, and Well Met

[Wezz]

Hello All - 27 year old from the States here,  new to  blacksmithing and the DIY philosophy in general. 

Some months ago, I found myself bored and endlessly perusing Youtube, and stumbled upon a (presumably) talented smith generously helping YouTube history buff Lindybeige create a sword. After watching that captivating process, something about the sound and seeing the metal move "stirred the dwarven blood" in me, as my brother amicably put it. 

Since then, I've been utterly fascinated (mayhap even obsessed) with blacksmithing as a craft - and compelled by it in a way unlike anything I've experienced before. I'm not yet striking hot iron (funds and resources being what they are) but I'm determined to be at it soon - before December, with any luck. I've already purchased my first set of cross peen and ball peen hammers, and my brother has a shop that he's graciously allowing me to set up in. 

Next steps are the forge - I want to get a semi transportable propane set up with firebrick. After that I'd ideally like a new 70ish lb anvil ( estimates I've seen online is for about $300-400) but until then it seems there are plenty of cheap alternatives (and the off-chance of stumbling into a good deal for a used one). When I do get started, I want to work my way up to knifemaking - but I understand one must crawl before they can walk. 

My brothers shop is an hour drive away, so it'll take time to set up. In the meantime, I've been hammering penny nails into stumps - an exercise recommended to me to build both strength and hammer control. Added to this is an insatiable thirst to read and watch all I can about the craft. Which brings me here. I've been lurking for a month, and I am pleasantly overwhelmed by all the information archived here.  Currently reading a copy of Gas Burners for Forges, Furnaces, and Kilns (again at the recommendation of this site). So thank you all for providing a path for others to walk and learn from. 

[Glenn]

Look up the JABOD just a  box of dirt forge (solid fuel) and you can have a fire going in an hour or so. Your choice of solid fuels can be found locally.  Look for the thread on makeshift anvils and choose one that can work for you.  The IFI store sells gas forge refractories and delivers them to your door.

The more you read the less money you will need to spend.  You can get metal to play with by going to the places that throw metal into a dumpster. Learning to scrounge is both an ability and an art form. 

Above all look up TPAAAT, the Thomas Powers Applied Anvil Acquisition Technique. It works for all sorts of things, including anvils.

The READ THIS FIRST thread will guide you through the site.

[pnut]

Here's a picture of where I forge behind my Apt building. Total cost $0.00. I scrounged everything or got it for free. This was in the beginning. It's grown and evolved over the last several months. It is about to be changed considerably. I'm going to build a different jabot out of a SS prep table I got for free from a restaurant. I don't think the night stand forge will make it through the winter. It's been in the weather for about nine months and it's showing it's age.

Pnut

[pnut]

By the way I used to live in Edgewood MD.

Pnut

[Wezz]

Thanks Glenn! Appreciate the pro-tips for navigation and the suggestions. 

Pnut, I can't say it's handsome but I can say it's brimming with ingenuity and I'm definitely impressed - and it's fair enough evidence that perhaps I should not be waiting for my forge-variables to align themselves pleasantly. I'll see what I can manage. 

Also Pnut, I have a good friend that lives in Towson I visit frequently. I live in a college town about 2 hours east of Frederick. Central Maryland seems to have a pretty active smithing/art-oriented community, and it's a shame that I can't find anything of that caliber closer to home. I'm sure  there are folk engaging in the craft near me, they're just not overtly concerned with touting it publicly/online. Which, you know, fair enough.

Anyways, thanks again for the input - I'll try to utilize the sage wisdom granted unto me. 


 

[pnut]

 I moved from Maryland thirty years ago when I was a young teenager. I don't know how far away it is from you but have you checked into the Mid-Atlantic Blacksmith Association? You can also check for an ABANA affiliate closer to you. I'm sure there's something going on not too far from you. You just have to have the time to do it which I know can be a problem. 

 I made my jabod out of a night stand from the hotel I work at. I use a jumpstarter/power station to power an electric air mattress pump and a thirty inch piece of RR rail standing on end in a five gallon bucket filled with fine gravel as an anvil. Now that I've listed everything I did spend $11 on the matress pump at Walmart.  

 I put off getting started for a long time because I thought I needed certain things to blacksmith. IFORGEIRON showed me how easy it is to get up and running and it doesn't have to cost much. I wish I would have used all the time I wasted thinking I needed this or that actually learning to forge instead of hesitating and thinking everything needed to be perfect. There's no perfect forge, anvil, or whatever.  I would be much farther along than I am currently if I would have figured that out sooner.  Oh well hindsight is 20/20 I guess. Don't get caught thinking you have to have something that looks like Wile E Coyote ordered it to drop on a roadrunner or a "real" forge. A solid fuel forge is just a hole In the ground and a jabod just raises the hole up to a convenient height.

 You can only work the steel under your hammer so that's about three inches at most so an anvil only need be as big as your hammer. A piece of 3 or 4 inch round or square bar or plate will work to get started.  Good luck and remember it's supposed to be fun. 

Pnut

Edited October 14, 2019 by pnut

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard Wezz, glad to have you. Bug bit you eh? Heh, heh, heh. Join the club buddy, blacksmithing is addictive, you HAVE TO: Play with FIRE! Hit things with hammers! Drag road kill scrap home! It's: dirty, smelly, smoky, dangerous and LOUD! Tell me Bro does ANYTHING sound like more fun? The best part? (oh yeah, I'm not done) You learn what makes for true self confidence, how to do for yourself. Believe me, few things feel as good as using tools you make with your own hands.

pnut lays it out pretty well but there is a minimum list. You need: a hot fire, something to beat against, something to beat with and lastly, something to beat. 

A JABOD is a  modern version of forge that is literally thousands of years old, copper age or earlier.

Something to beat against can be anything relatively smooth and heavy enough it doesn't bounce around under the work too much. I've used a nice smooth boulder a few times and you'd be surprised how well they worked. Vikings forged on limestone anvil stones. NOT always of course but often enough and look at what they made. My favorite field expedient anvil was a broken axle of some sort I buried on end flange up to my working height. I still kick myself for not pulling it and bringing it home with me but . . . <sigh> The anvil only needs to be a LITTLE larger than the hammer face. 

Any smooth faced hammer 32 oz. or less until you develop good hammer skills. More weight will mostly make your mistakes permanent more quickly, fatigue your arm and possibly injure you. Vikings used (yeah Viking smiths again. Am I developing a theme in this post?) hammers in the 1.5 - 2 lb range for the most part. Search out the "Mastermyr Chest", it is a 1,000+/- year old Viking era blacksmith shop in a chest. There isn't a tool a blacksmith won't recognize and probably put to work. 

Do NOT wait to start hammering hot steel till you have everything you need. You have eyes? Hands with thumbs? a Brain? There's your kit, the rest just makes it easier. 

Oh, NO FIRE BRICK PROPANE FORGES! If you're not going to buy Morgan ceramics K-26 IFB you aren't going to be able to build a very effective or economical forge. Hard fire brick is a serious heat sink so it'll take a lot of fuel to heat up and being about as good an insulator as limestone it'll take about as much fuel to keep hot. If you use common light insulating fire brick expect to replace their crumbling remains every other time you use your forge if you're lucky. 

Go JABOD and a piece of heavy steel of some sort as an anvil and get to learning. There are a number of good beginner projects that are decent sale items so you can eventually buy a cookie jar and start saving for better gear. You have your hammers don't go spending a bunch more till you've had a chance to scrounge at local heavy equipment shops for a piece of shafting, axle, etc. A box of doughnuts and something nice for the receptionist pay dividends WAY above and beyond their  cost. Remember a bulldozer is made of anvils!

You can buy a mattress inflator new at Walmart, they'll be going on closeout sale about now. I pick them up at yard, garage, etc. sales for under $1 usually sometimes they get dumped on me, take it all or leave the one thing I was interested in. You'd be surprised how many tables we come home with, I have a sweet little metal cart I got that way, it lives under my NARB forge. 

I could go on but this and more has been said hundreds or thousands of times here over the years. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Wezz]

You all have convinced me - I've asked my brother if we can go scrounge around the various scrapyards and dumps this Saturday. I have a few ideas for a JABOD set up, and also keeping an eye out for a conveniently shaped piece of scrap (like that food service prep bay you mentioned Pnut).

I also looked into the Mid Atlantic Smiths Association - seems like a place with some resources, but probably wouldn't pay a fee until I'm 'up and at it,' so to speak.

Also Frosty, thank you so much for the mention of the Morgan ceramics. I looked those up and they look -phenomenally- more well equipped for forging, and the price is still pretty reasonable. Am looking at other peoples set ups.  Any other suggestions or tips that come to mind would of course be appreciated.

Those are the weight I got my cross/ball peens respectively. My brother (who is a carpenter, so I'm in good hands with a set of background eyes) suggested those weights. I also looked up the Mastermyr chest, and that... is friggin' cool. Awesome that we would find  Would be cool to replicate it someday as a project perhaps. That's one thing I'm realizing the more I dig into this - Blacksmithing was (and still is, albeit in more industrial forms) a major factor in the path of civilization. It's also a fascinating lens to look at history through as well.

 

[ThomasPowers]

Most groups I've been associated with will let you attend meetings a couple of times before paying to join.  It can be a big help seeing other smith's set ups and finding out what you like/dislike about them before you build your own.  Some groups even have forges available for folks to use after meetings.

Helps to avoid the "I don't know anything about this; so I designed a new and improved way to do it and it doesn't work right, y'all need to fix it for me!" (And Yes, we do seem to get a number of such posts here over time...)

[pnut]

21 minutes ago, Wezz said:

also keeping an eye out for a conveniently shaped piece of scrap (like that food service prep bay you mentioned Pnut).

I haven't cut a hole in it yet. I have it measured for the fireplace pan but I'm still looking into other options. I've been thinking about cutting the legs shorter and just using bricks to contain the clay. That way I can modify it later if I want to without a twenty four inche hole In the middle of the table. I'm going to try the bricks this weekend probably. Setting a box made from 1x 10's  on top of the table is another option.

Pnut

Edited October 16, 2019 by pnut