Justin’s Smithing progression. [PIC heavy]

[Justin Topp]

Inspired by Jasent (as you can see in the title) I decided to start a progression post and archive all my work to look back on. I might miss a few things but I’ll try to get most of this. I’ll be adding on as I have time. To start I’m relatively new so I’m going to give some quick information about myself. I am a 15 year old aspiring blacksmith from North Dakota. I’ve always been interested in blacksmithing and recently learned my great great grandfather was a smith. I started in November 2018. These pictures may or may not be in chronological order. I’ll try though. 

this is my first anvil. I started with a rock making fire pokers but here is my first aso. A chunk of railroad track that weighs 30 lbs and is about 9 inches long.

 

this is my forge I started with. A aluminum terry pan with cat litter and cement blocks. Charcoal briquettes. I had a brick explode but I didn’t know any better at the time. Now I do. Hair dryer for an air supply.

 

this was my first “knife.” A rebar shiv

a fire rake I made and have broken and replaced 

my first hammers. A 3lb cross peen. A 2.5 lb club hammer and a 2 oz ball peen for texture. 

Horseshoe nail hooks and pendant. 

[Jasent]

Tagging along 

[pnut]

Can't wait to see where it goes. You seem to have the one resource I'm sure most members would love to have and that's the ability to get some forge time in every or almost every day. I'm excited to see more of your work and watch you continue to get better and better.

Pnut

[Justin Topp]

42 photos attached to this post.

I soon upgraded to this old buffalo forge rivet forge. 

and lump charcoal/homemade charcoal instead of the briquettes 

state of the forge

 

knife from a file with walnut handles. 

Coal! Still using a hand crank at this time haha. With anthracite. 

Rr spike center punch. 

I broke my first fire poker around that time. 

New rr anvil and state of the forge. 

First tongs. They were horrible 

Extendable work rest for long bar stock. 

Hot cut made for the “Pritchel hole of the anvil. It wasn’t round it was flame cut rough circle so it doesn’t rotate

hook for hanging welding mask

fire pokers

 

1st spike knife

 

my first proper tongs a gift from my father 

first leaf

ball peen hammer I found and used a lot. 

 My first Anvil. A 150 lb Henry wright. 

 First project on the new anvil 

2nd spike knife

 

5$ for these plus a ton of other random stuff 

Center punch and chisel 

Trace hook.

 

5/8 round punch I found for about 1$

This beautiful vise day for 2 years in the shear of the house we bought. 70lb Indian chief. cleaned later 

Shovel I made but don’t really like haha

Second leaf

 

2.75lb cross peen I found 

Fire tools I made. 

First hammer. Mild steel soft faced hammer 

V shaped bending hardy. 

Rigged a hair dryer to my forge for easier use of coal. 

2nd hammer. 2lb straight peen

nail header and some nails 

hammer tongs

 

Rivet kit 

Thanks everyone. That’s a long post sorry but I’m trying to archive everything. Yes my free time is a huge help to me. I’ve lost some pictures sadly but I’m working on it. I’ll finish and get it up to date later today 

[CrazyGoatLady]

I'm glad you did this. I've been following your posts since you joined up here and I was surprised to find out how young you are and how good you already are at this. Have you taken lessons or learned on your own? If you've said, I missed it somewhere. 

[Justin Topp]

Thanks! I’ve wanted to do this for a while and finally had the time. I’ve learned on my own because I didn’t know of any classes near me. Now I’ve learned there are some but they are far away for stuff I know already. I learned from YouTube and reading here mainly. 

[Justin Topp]

rivets i made. Damascus knife 
some more damascus I never used  first and second hot cut. Dogs head hammer. hammer punch. Round punch and new hammer drift. Handled but it was later switched to hickory once this broke. Fire poker folding knife from cable Damascus. My tong collection mild steel Swedish cross peen with forge welded faces. 3 hour total time knife. Excluding epoxy drying and temper  first spoon  TongsFailed tongs. 4.75lb rounding hammer. Also my first rounding hammer I’ve made Flint striker. Draw knife second rounding hammer.  

[Justin Topp]

I’ve got some time so here’s more stuff I’ve done. box jaw tongs I made. Wrought iron hook for hanging bird feeders. On the left is a axe slot punch. ( no pic of only it) first axe. Folded and forge welded   Viking style 7 oz wrought iron and steel hammer. Leaf textured by iron hammer. Yakut knife from Nicholson file. anvil block/ stump anvil from mild steel and leaf spring. First meat turner first trivet now we are caught up to today. These are a small pair of tongs because often seem to need them for certain tasks first bottle openers used the small tongs to hold these while slitting for the openers. 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Very nice progression on your work.

Let me give you a tip on loading your pictures. When you finish typing a line of text about a picture, hit enter to drop down a line then add the picture. For the next line of text, click at the bottom right corner of the just uploaded picture and hit enter. That should drop the cursor down to another line. Then type in your text and hit enter, which should drop down a line. Keep repeating that for all the rest of the pictures. That will make it much easier to follow when reading.

[Justin Topp]

Thanks

Will do from now on. Thanks for the tips I’m still learning how the site works beyond just reading haha 

[pnut]

Great work. One other thing I think might be helpful along the lines of what IDF&C said Is you may want to contact a moderator and have them add the words pic heavy to the title. Some members still have to pay for every Kb of data and may want a little warning before opening your thread. Keep it up. 

Pnut

[Justin Topp]

Thanks Pnut. I’m on it now

[Justin Topp]

First Leaf hook. Made it for holding grinder Disks 

[Justin Topp]

Not blacksmithing really but Made a sheath go With the Yakut knife I forged. First time leather working. Far from perfect but it securely And safely holds the knife 

i get to go back to the forge tomorrow so I can hopefully get some forging done. Made a hood for it and used 4” pipe but it was much too small so I’m using 6”. If that doesn’t work I’ll get some 12” but it should be fine. Mainly just needs to carry the majority of smoke and fumes up not let them blow at me. 

[Bonnskij]

I love the leaf hook disc holder. My other half wants me to make backpack hooks for the kids. Maybe I'll try forging them instead of making them out of wood now.

What sort of stock did you use for them if you don't mind me asking?

[Justin Topp]

Thank you! I used 1/4” 3/8” is also good 

[Les L]

GuardedDig2, you are doing very good work. I like all the knives, but the folder really caches my eye.

[Justin Topp]

Thanks. It was my first And only folder Knife. First cable Damascus too

[Awrksmokey]

good job man! the sheath turned out real nice!

[Justin Topp]

Thanks Smokey! 

[Justin Topp]

3/4” round drift I finished up tonight. Not sure steel but I think 4140

first calipers. Not done but forge broke down so here’s what’s done so far

[Justin Topp]

Yesterday’s work finished. A 3/4” round drift. A set of calipers and my third bottle opener. 


 

finished this axe tonight. It’s my second attempt and it’s from 1.5” round mild steel with a farriers rasp edge. About 2.5 lbs. 28 hickory handle.  
 

[Justin Topp]

charcoal rake for the bbq. Nice wide scoop speed with a cross peen. Forged from 3/8” square mild steel.  
 

[Jasent]

I like that rake 

[Justin Topp]

Thanks Jasent