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Blacksmithing Equipment


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Hello! Just wondering if anyone here knows of anyone in CT that is selling or getting rid of there old blacksmithing tools and equipment willing to pay for a reasonable price just starting to get into the craft but running into the problem of things are expensive! Thank you for your feedback!  

Also willing to drive to RI or NY or PA if need be to get this stuff

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Welcome aboard, glad to have you. If you put your general location in the header you'll have a much better chance of connecting with members living within visiting distance. 

You might want to take a look here. https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/52308-a-collection-of-improvised-anvils/

The thread is a collection of improvised anvils and useful modifications. A London pattern is a relatively new shape anvil, people have been forging metal far longer. Don't get stuck on the London pattern.

Don't expect to find decent prices online, too many people trying to make max on smithing tools. Check out the TPAAAT method, (Thomas Powers Applied Anvil Acquisition Technique) It can be found easily enough in a search. When searching Iforge, use your favorite search engine and add Iforge to the search terms. The engines will search Iforge first and this is much easier than using the search engine on site, it stinks. 

Don't wait until you have acquired all the "perfect" stuff before you build a fire and start beating defenseless steel into submission.

Frosty The Lucky.

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Welcome aboard for 7500' in SE Wyoming. Glad to have you.

You can actually start blacksmithing for little initial investment.  A JABOD (Just A Box Of Dirt) forge.  An improvised anvil (see Frosty's link above).  An inexpensive cross pein (AKA engineer's hammer, about 2 pounds) hammer from a big box store, and some sort of grabber, tongs, vise grips, channel locks, etc..  If you decide to move on with the craft you can gradually upgrade from places like tail gating sales at local blacksmith events and making your own tools.  Buying top of the line tools and equipment when you are starting out is like buying a Formula 1 race car the day after you get you learner's permit.

I hope you find the craft as rewarding as I have for the last 44 years.  It has helped me get through good times and bad.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

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Tho I have a farriers rig to make a living I enjoy scrounging up inventive cheep rigs. 
a JABOD forge (see stickies) as well as an improvised anvil (an 8# plus sledge if you have nothing else, a 24 oz. Ball pein and a pair of vice grips will get you started. $20-200 will do you to start. The Norse of the Viking era didn’t have a blacksmiths depo or farriers  supply. 
tell us what you have as to transferable skills and scrounge-able resources. And we can walk you threw it. 

I can walk into a Walmart or a flea market and be up and running for less than $100. But as this is the oilfield, more like $20 and an hours scrounging
 

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I know I've told the story before but I've set up by campfires many times with whatever was handy for the anvil and a drill hammer. I was almost always using scrounged steel and picked long pieces so I almost never needed tongs. On a couple occasions I used green willow or alder saplings, split, wedged and wired for tongs. They don't pivot on a hinge like what we usually use, they operate like tongs you'd use at the BBQ. They weren't great tongs and didn't last long but they worked okay if I didn't expect too much from them. 

A fire, smooth boulder and a smooth faced hammer or a smooth coble on a stick is enough. You don't really need an air blast unless you need to weld and it does make upsetting easier.

$100 in a city or town and I could set up with bells and whistles. Something to cut with is always SWEET and usually the first thing I made.

Frosty The Lucky.

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