How to get started in lockdown (sourcing an ASO?)

[sqek]

Hello!

I've wanted to have a go at forging stuff for a while now, after seeing some youtubers start themselves, and then getting recommended videos from some proper blacksmithing channels.

I'm a postgrad student at the moment, so haven't been able to try as shared student houses tend to frown on open fires (and even candles), but I'm at the family home for the lockdown until the unis open back up so now might have a chance!

I'm looking to get a basic newbie setup to have a go. I'm near Reading, Berkshire, and have access to logs (a nearby tree surgeon has a big pile of free big logs), an ageing claw hammer, a moderate-sized garden, a couple of old pairs of pliers, somewhat-tolerant parents, and might be able to borrow the family car. Does anyone have any tips on how I could source an ASO / build a basic forge / get some stock metal during the lockdown? (Most things I've seen seem to suggest trawling boot fairs for cast-iron-flat-irons, or otherwise assume that going outside and talking to people is legal)

Also a slightly broader question: considering I'll probably be back at uni by the end of the year, and anything big will have to be thrown away/sold as my parents will want their garden back, is this actually worthwhile? Or does the minimum-viable setup need too much investment to only be used for a summer? 

Thanks in advance!

[Glenn]

The minimum requirements are something to hit, something to hit with, and something to hit upon.  

JABOD - Just A Box Of Dirt  and A collection of improvised anvils  and a 2# ball peen hammer is a good place to start.  Search the alleys, dumpsters, and the local car mechanic for metal that can be used.   Collect a couple of the log rounds while they are available.  The end grain of the wood can be used as an anvil for a long while until it starts to show signs of wear.  The rest of that wood can be used as fuel for the JABOD forge.

You can bend metal cold, just takes more effort.  Bending up to 3/8 inch diameter round stock cold is easy, 1/2 inch round stock cold takes a little effort.  

Get some modeling clay at a craft shop and start practicing moving the clay which moves just like metal. 

[JHCC]

2 hours ago, Glenn said:

The minimum requirements are something to hit, something to hit with, and something to hit upon.  

And something to HOLD what you're hitting. If you're working on something that's not long enough to hold on its own, then you're going to need to use your aforementioned pliers. If you can afford to order a pair of tongs through the mail, DO IT! If you can't hold it, you can't hit it (and there a few things in blacksmithing as scary as losing control of your workpiece and watching it twist through the air on its way to your face).

[ThomasPowers]

Note you DON'T want an ASO; an ASO is something that is pretty much worthless as an anvil by definition.  You want an anvil!  It may not look like a London Pattern anvil but it's an ANVIL!  Look through the improvised anvil thread; they are not "Anvil Shaped Objects" but they are anvils.

As I recall Anstee did his seminal work on pattern welded swords using a cheese weight.

As much of smithing is developing the physical skills, the more hours you can get in the better!

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Welcome aboard... One of the most important reads on the forum is this one.  READ THIS FIRST  It is full of tips on how to get the best here like how to do the most efficient search plus many others. There are several threads on making a compact portable forge set up.

This is one of them.

https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/46989-the-rolling-anvils-video/?tab=comments#comment-488462

https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/51534-the-rolling-anvil-project-update/?tab=comments#comment-570592

 

[sqek]

Thanks so much for all the replies, and for being so welcoming so quickly!

22 hours ago, Glenn said:

Search the alleys, dumpsters, and the local car mechanic for metal that can be used.   Collect a couple of the log rounds while they are available.  The end grain of the wood can be used as an anvil for a long while until it starts to show signs of wear.  The rest of that wood can be used as fuel for the JABOD forge.

The impression that I've got from other parts of the forum is that it's harder to get wood to a forging heat than buying coal? Or is a novice-constructed wood-burning-to-charcoal forge good enough to get started, but just not hot enough for proper heat treatment / forge welding?

Also I've found a bag of old ultra-cheap cat litter that's been sat in the garage for years and sounds good for the dirt part of a JABOD, now just need to find a box and some air...

20 hours ago, JHCC said:

And something to HOLD what you're hitting. If you're working on something that's not long enough to hold on its own, then you're going to need to use your aforementioned pliers. If you can afford to order a pair of tongs through the mail, DO IT! If you can't hold it, you can't hit it (and there a few things in blacksmithing as scary as losing control of your workpiece and watching it twist through the air on its way to your face).

How recommended are the 'bootstrap tongs' I've seen mentioned a few times for a newbie? (The idea being to get a long piece of stock, work the ends into something grabby, then bend a springy bit in the middle to get something tweezer-like in operation but tong-sized). Also how long is long-enough-to-hold? I have some calluses from rowing, but they've been shrinking since the boat club got shut down.

I've also seen a lot of debate about gloves vs no gloves (pros: can hold warm metal for longer, protection from sparks; cons: bad habits of grabbing hot metal, not being able to get a hot glove off as it burns you) - any personal thoughts on this for starting out?

 

The lockdown changes tomorrow should make finding stuff a lot easier, it's actually going to be legal to go outside for non-exercise and non-essential shopping - suddenly asking round farms/mechanics for scrap metal might be possible (I was looking at ordering online, but postage was a killer for small orders)

Does anyone have experience of getting steel within suburban southern England, in terms of what sort of prices are reasonable?

[ThomasPowers]

Charcoal was the fuel used to forge from the start of the iron age until NOW. All the viking/Frankish pattern welded swords were forged using charcoal, wootz steel was melted using charcoal.  Javanese Kris's were forge welded using charcoal and Japanese swords are still forged today using charcoal. If your charcoal fueled forge isn't getting hot enough: YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG! (Most generally by trying to use a forge designed for using coal with charcoal.  Much like trying to use diesel in a gas engine---they both work to power engines; but you need to use an engine designed for the fuel!)

I much prefer producing my charcoal separately from my forge fire---even when I'm just transferring red hot coals from the wood fire to the forge fire.

Coal came into blacksmithing during the high to late Middle Ages according to "Cathedral Forge and Waterwheel: : Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages"  Gies & Gies.   (Coal has a problem with sulfur which is bad for iron/steel---makes it hot short. Learning how to get around that issue took a while. Smelting with coal didn't occur until the 1700's when Abraham Darby figured a way to do it using coked coal---and they still had issues with sulfur!)

[sqek]

Update: turns out my family are less supportive than I thought, and don't want their garden to be full of fire/smoke/noise/etc (and don't want to annoy our neighbours), so it looks like this'll have to wait for however many years it takes to get homeownership (or for things to reopen enough to do a course somewhere else)

Unless there's some sort of standard argument-to-persuade-parents-that-it-won't-be-that-bad that works?

[Glenn]

Purchase a brick of modeling clay.  Anything you can do with the clay you can do with metal.  Practice now for when you get a forge later.

Move to non-ferrous metals such as copper, brass, etc. 

There is a world of creativity that centers around aluminum cans as the base material.  Air spinners, aluminum roses, embossing, wall art, etc.

There was a fellow on the site that packed everything needed to blacksmith onto his bicycle and went to a park or other area that allowed him to work.  When finished, he packed it up and brought it back home.  If you want to work with metal you can find a way.  It may not be blacksmithing, but it is still great fun and good practice for later when you can do blacksmithing.

Do not tell us what you can not do (the list is too long), tell us what you CAN do and still stay on good terms with your parents and the neighbors.

[ThomasPowers]

I did some nice work in my old house's basement using a "one soft firebrick forge" powered off a cheap plumber's propane torch.  Did all the nails for my Mastermyr chest and a lot of hack silver jewelry---hot working silver is a lot of fun after forging steel!

If you can source a quiet anvil then there wouldn't be that much fuss and bother working in the garden.

[sqek]

Thanks for the tips! I'll have a look for some clay once the shops that might sell it reopen... (Hobbycraft and the like are still saying they're staying shut as they're non-essential, at least near me)

Also the videos of tiny portable forges have been really helpful, I've almost got permission to get a freebie-discarded-chest-of-drawers, so I can use a drawer as a box for forge dirt, and put it inside when not in use (after it's cooled off of course!) (so there'll normally just be a neat random piece of furniture tucked out of the way, rather than an open box of cat litter spoiling the view or taking up shed space). Also a manual blower (as in not electrical) will be more acceptable - currently thinking of rigging up something like the centrifugal blower that the primitive technology guy made, but with more plywood

I hadn't thought of non-ferrous - do they forge similarly, but need less heat? I've got some scrap aluminium angle from an old school project!

How much effect does the anvil have on the volume? I'd always assumed it would be the hammer-on-workpiece contact that actually makes the noise...

[ThomasPowers]

Non-Ferrous: it totally depends on the alloy!  A lot of non-ferrous alloys are NOT forgeable; some are.  Fine silver is very tolerant of forging as long as you don't MELT IT in the forge! Pure copper forges well but absorbs O2 and will start cracking after too much exposure. Some alloys of Al forge but at lower temps.

The anvil is probably 95% of the noise.  My A&H goes TING when working hot steel on it; my Fisher goes thwap. Muting the A& H makes it much easier on the ears. Of course sometimes you want an anvil to "call in the crowd" at a demo; so earplugs can help.

As for hiding things---that's why I like old propane gas grills on their stands.  Here in the USA they are a commonly seen and commonly ignored object.  They also provide weather protection for the stuff inside their outer shell.