The radiused edges of a sledge hammer head makes them unlikely to chip but the hammer in your hand CAN, so dress your hammer and learn hammer control. Most important is wear good PPE, picking chips out of a leg really smarts but an eye?

Frosty The Lucky.

Can you use regular charcoal briquettes as fuel for a forge ?

Nope. There are quite a few topics on solid fuels here on the forum. They all say no to BBQ briquettes. Lump Charcoal (purchased or make your own charcoal), coal, coke for solid fuels. Think I even saw a thread or two where folks were started out with raw wood even. Just takes longer as you have to burn it down to charcoal to forge.

Yes but they are not nearly as good as lump charcoal; either store bought or made yourself from scrap wood.  Briquettes also throw off a lot more sparks when in use.  I sometimes build a wood fire in a raised firepit and transfer hot coals over to my forge with a shovel.  Free using scrap wood and I can position the raised firepit so the smoke and heat is not on me while I am forging.

Note that charcoal takes very "soft" air to work.

You can use BBQ briquettes however they are not the best for heating steel. They contain a lot of fillers/binders and other stuff. The best commercial charcoal for forging is hardwood lump charcoal mostly available everywhere in the same place the briquets are. 

You guys type faster than I, beat me to it.

Ok thanks very much 

You can use corn kernels for fuel.  Discussed on the site several times.

I have used cardboard (the brown corrugated stuff) for fuel but it takes a lot of cardboard.  Not something I would recommend as a fuel but it did work on the short testing trial.

 

Find a fuel that is cheap and available in your local area, then build a forge to use that fuel.

Yup, the old soft hammer for the beginner trick.

On 8/11/2020 at 12:04 PM, Frosty said:

The radiused edges of a sledge hammer head makes them unlikely to chip but the hammer in your hand CAN, so dress your hammer and learn hammer control. Most important is wear good PPE, picking chips out of a leg really smarts but an eye?

Frosty The Lucky.

I had to dig a very sharp chip off a hammer from my left forearm. Not fun. Got real deep too. It did not come from the edges, but the face, sort of a flake off the face that shot sideways. And the denim shirt did not stop it. 

Leather aprons are a beginners friend,  Safety glasses too!  (There is an old adage that goes something like: You can walk on a peg leg, you can use a hook instead of a hand, but close your eyes and tell me what you can see with a glass eye!)

I'm going to add ear plugs to the list of safety stuff. 

 

I've never seen a hammer face chip but I try real hard not to hit hard steel with a hammer. Agreed, denim doesn't stop chips.

Ear protection is a good thing for sure, I wear muffs with AM FM and a patch cord so I can listen to audio books in the shop. I don't listen to entertainment if I'm not alone in the shop. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Good advice. Something to hit with, something to hit on, something to heat with and any kind of fuel you come across. 

Sound advice,, in a traditional sort of way . Just couldn't resist.

Ear plugs are not just for sound.  They keep dirt and debris out of the ear canal.

Welding should require ear plugs as they keep the spudderballs from entering the ear canal.  

I am also very new to smithing.  My advice is just to not get caught up and needing a particular thing yet.

Scale your work with what you have access to and see if the hobby sticks. Patiently acquire what you can on the cheap/free. If you get to the point where your ambition for doing something outstrips your current gear AND you have been at it for a while - then start thinking about investing more cash/effort to get something. 

You will find that if you see the world through “can I use that for smithing?” eyes you will suddenly come across lots of useful things.  With this frame of mind, you might find yourself with a pile of materials to work with, hammers acquired from relatives, an variety of makeshift anvils, etc.  If you shape your projects by what you DO have - then you will be much happier in the early stages  

As others have said, the place not to skimp is to make sure you have the right PPE.

On 8/10/2020 at 8:20 PM, Donovan Young said:

Not to hijack the topic, but is there any concern with accidentally striking a sledge hammer head (which I presume is hardened) with a hammer (which I KNOW is hardened?)

Radius edges on both will help mitigate the chance of chipping too. Always dress your hammer faces and knock down any sharp edges on an improvised anvil. 

Pnut

Wow the peripatetic camelid can read my mind!   Well posted  Tylopoda!

Hah!

I haven't seen him around for a while but waaaay back when he was just getting started, pre IFI even, a young guy went by the name "Stormcrow"  (A nickname for Gandalf in LotR), so I used to call him "Rainy Raven".   I'm glad you didn't take offense!

On 8/10/2020 at 6:20 PM, Donovan Young said:

is there any concern with accidentally striking a sledge hammer head

Good point and the very reason I do not recommend this unless you retemper the hammer face to a softer temper. A basic rule in my shop is to not hammer on any hardened steel especially if you don't know the hardness of both.

I wonder about heating pellets, in a pinch.  I have a little mimi moto stove that uses them VERY efficiently, and puts out a ton of heat...

As you want the coals I don't know how well that would work.

What would be good as a first pair of tongs or some other way to hold stuff 

J1.,

You do not need tongs if you use a long enough piece of steel to work with.

Iron is a poor conductor of heat. So you can heat one end and handle the other end if it is ten to twelve inches away.

Vice grip pliers can be used instead of tongs. But they are not as handy as tongs.

Easiest is to start with stock long enough it can be held in your bare hand,