Chasing that dragon

[Mattyice572]

Hey guys, my name is matt and im new on here. Since i was a child my dream job has been to be a black smith. Unfortunately most of my working years have been in the exotic animal and fish trade and in recent years, a mail man. That being said i really have zero knowledge and no experience with blacksmithing. I finally have a career with decent hours and some spare time on my hands, and am looking to finally but slowly get into blacksmithing as a hobby. I plan to start with smaller and easier stuff, maybe some basic knives, but ultimately my goal is to forge axes. From hatchets to viking axes all the way to large 2 handed war axes eventually. Thanks for reading and hopefully i can get started soon! While i have your attention. I live in north nj, is there anywhere around that area as far as a supply store or anyone reading this live in that area looking to sell a wide faced anvil or steel block? I looked online and most of what i found were only 4” wide, was hoping for a larger working surface maybe something 8” or larger then again i know nothing so maybe thats not needed. Also if anyone does forging in the area id really love to come see what a real work station looks like, order us a pizza, and maybe learn a thing or 2 from you while there. Thanks for any input!

[ThomasPowers]

Take a look at the anvils that the Vikings forged axes on.  In general any anvil face wider than your hammer's face will do---if you have the skills.

Have you looked at the blacksmithing classes offered at Peters Valley School of Craft in NJ?  (I used to live in Holmdel NJ in Monmouth County.)

 

[Frazer]

Matt, welcome aboard! If you put your location in your profile it will help people remember after leaving this particular thread. Also if you haven't already, take a moment to read the info in the "Read This First" tab at the top of the forum. It'll help you navigate the site more efficiently and avoid the all seeing eye of the Mods and Admins... or at least they will not give you as hard of a time anyway!

I'm still pretty new to blacksmithing myself so I'm just going to share my experience on how I got started, and you can decide what might work for you. My first improvised anvil was just a piece of steel I found in the scrapyard, it was ~3" in diameter and hardened. Probably only weighed 25 lbs or so. I set it up as a post anvil and it worked well for my little homemade coal forge while I took a few classes. You'd be surprised how much you can get done with just a small working surface. I used that for the first 6-7 months while I saved up some money for my current anvil. It's a 150#er and about 4" wide.

In my area, it was hard for me to find an anvil at all, especially one that wasn't ridiculously overpriced (perhaps I don't know where to look). So I ended up driving 10 hours round trip to get mine. Totally worth the drive, but hopefully you have better luck finding something local. I imaging an anvil that's 8" wide would be very large and very heavy, which generally comes with a big price tag. There are some anvils with a side shelf that might be closer to that 8" width, but that side shelf isn't really there for heavy hammering. I guess what I'm getting at is I don't know if something that wide would be practical, at least for someone like me.

I'm generally of the opinion that you don't need to set up your shop all at once, it's fine to start small and build up as you realize what you need and what you don't. There is a thread on improvised anvils that may give you some ideas on what sort of things people use. When improvising there is definitely a balance between getting set up without breaking the bank and ending up fighting with your setup and making things unnecessarily difficult for yourself, but there is a lot of good information here if you know how to find it. Of course if you have the money and are willing to invest, then go for it! No one ever complained about having too big of an anvil or too nice of a forge, but they aren't required when starting out IMHO.

If there is an option to take a class or attend a meeting near you, I would definitely recommend going. You learn a lot faster with someone there to point out the things you wouldn't notice working alone, and it's a good way to meet people near you.  

[ThomasPowers]

I got my 400+ pound Trenton from a fellow who complained that it was too big---he was moving a lot and it was too large for him to load and unload by himself.  Traded him a 125# PW as part of the deal so he'd have an anvil he could move.  Then I moved 1500 miles with the large anvil.

Where a large flat surface may be handy is truing up an item after most of the forging has been done and before heat treat.  For that "light" work an anvil isn't necessary just a flat slab of steel will work.  A fifth generation smith I met in Stroud OK had an old oilfield bridge anvil with the face beat to "moderators disapproval" that he used for truing up plowshares---he flipped the anvil over in a angle iron stand and used the plain soft bottom!

Don't fall for the "you need fancy stuff to do fancy smithing"  I've forged pattern welded billets using a hole in the ground, hot coals from a wood fire and short piece of RR rail for an anvil and a claw hammer---thankfully *not* waffled faced!  What you need are skills to use the equipment you have.

[Mattyice572]

Thanks for the input guys, ill try to learn how to navigate the forum better. Hopefully ill have something to share soon!

[Frazer]

The "Read this First" tab gives you the best way to find info in the site, use your browser and add site:iforgeiron.com to your search. 

The hard part is knowing what you'd like to find ha! if you're just poking around, the pinned threads usually have some good info on some of the commonly searched topics.

Looking forward to it and good luck! Hopefully you're able to connect with someone near you.