A Persistent Interest

[CamCarpenter]

Hello, iForgeIron Community!

My name is Cam Blumreisinger and I'm new here! I have been lurking, reading posts and gathering information for a few months now, but I have finally opened an account. I wanted to jump in and be part of this cool community!

A little about me: I live in Welland, Ontario, Canada. I took an interest in blacksmithing back in college (2014ish) when a friend of mine took off down that path. I didn't think it was realistic goal for me as I was still afraid of getting dirt under my fingernails at the time.  I went through computer programming, call centers, pizza delivery, siding and finally found framing and general carpentry. I found my calling in making walls and buildings, it's just so satisfying! But this calling to blacksmithing keeps coming back. I presume it will be a hobby, but I haven't started yet, so I have no idea how big a slice of my life it will take out.

I am a husband (2017) and a father to two boys (Nov 2017 and Nov 2019) and have been practicing carpentry since 2018. I have completed a 3 year apprenticeship and just need to write my Certification of Qualification to be given my Canadian Red Seal (A national program that lauds professionals of a variety of trades, though I will be a "General Carpenter") I have a small woodshop in my 1-car garage, but I am looking to add some metalworking and blacksmithing equipment to my shop to round out my experience.

I love how a blacksmith can MAKE their own tools. The self-sufficiency of blacksmithing has always appealed to me and I love to do for myself, rather than hiring someone else. I think a great many lessons can be learned from trying to figure it out yourself.

I call it a Persistent Interest because I have ADHD, I am frequently interested in a wide variety of activities to an unhealthy degree. ... Then they're gone. I never think about them again, hours and hours of research and hundreds or thousands of dollars and I just never pick it up again. I have learned (over my meager 28 years) to give myself some time to stew on something before I jump on it, and I've "snoozed" the blacksmithing call a few times a year for the last several years until I just decided to go for it. I started learning about it and watching Alec Steele and the interest grew. Finally I acquired some fire bricks and designed a smeltery. I tried it, but it wasn't enough for me, I needed to be able to make tools and maybe I would smelt on the side, if it was an interest.

I am currently in the process of designing my forge and I am done the bulk of the design (only a few hours, but I am happy with it, so far) I have made the design thanks to a bunch of information found on this and other sites. Frosty's words of wisdom have guided a few steps of my process and I am very grateful to him for his no-nonsense reveal of information. Often over my head, the basics have proven to be enough to get me started (hopefully!) and I hope to make my forge later this week or early next week. Any design input is welcome. I am not done the design yet, but I will post what I have completed. Hopefully this is the right place. This forum is a bit of a challenge to navigate. After reading all the Read This First info, I did not see anywhere to make a first post, but after about a half hour, I found this place, haha. I cannot find a "first forge build" page (without bringing up over 100,000 results) so I will post it here, hopefully this is an acceptable place.

I want to thank this community for all the advice and resources I've already gained from it, and thank you in advance for all the interaction I look forward to over the coming decades.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Welcome from the Ozark mountains. This is the place and your post is spot on for introducing yourself. For forge help the sticky threads will be a big help. This one has a lot of good information in it. https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/61288-my-consolidated-notes-for-new-forge-builders/

 

[swedefiddle]

Good Morning Cam,

You are in the heart of the 'Ontario Artist Blacksmith Association' "OABA". Check out their web-site, they have something happening soon. The amount of knowledge that is available, close to you, is HUGE!!

Neil

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Howdy from eastern Oklahoma and welcome to the forum!

there’s a ton of information on here an it can be a bit overwhelming at first, but once you get to reading it gets easier to navigate! 

X2 on what swedefiddle said,

definitely hook up with some local smiths that will be another Wealth of information to help you get started!

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard Cam, gad to have you. ADHD is pretty common in this bunch. It sounds like you've been addicted to hot iron and hammers for a long time, I had to move out on my own before I could start pursuing the craft myself. I'm thinking you'll fit right in.

Nice rendering but as a forge it leaves a lot to be desired, we can discuss it in the Forges 101 section and not clutter this one. Do you have plans for a burner? I used to jump in on burners but so many fresh effective burners have been thought up by new guys I've developed a wait and see attitude. 

Doing HOT work in the same space as wood work isn't a good idea, hot bits of steel tend to hide in little spaces where you can't find them just like woo dust. There are workable ways to mitigate the risks though, it's not a game breaker. Its another something for another thread. 

There's lots to talk about. Like puns?

Frosty The Lucky.

 

[CamCarpenter]

Thank you, everyone for all the advice, links and input! I hope I am replying correctly. I know you're not supposed to @ people so I won't do that.

IronDragon ForgeClay Works, Thank you for that helpful link! I have read through it and see that I'm not quite doing the same as the article suggests, haha. I appreciate the link, it will be helpful for me to find quick reference info!

Swedefiddle, hi! Thank you for the link and letting me know they exist! I definitely wouldn't have heard of them as I don't run in blacksmith circles (yet!) but their membership fee is $40, and I spent my "fun money" this month on forge materials so maybe we'll see about next month, haha!

TWISTEDWILLOW, I appreciate the encouragement. It is a LOT of information on here, and it seems daunting to get started reading. As a completionist there is a part of me that wants to read every article haha, but I just don't have the time as a dad to manage that. I will be seeking out the OABA once I have the money lying around for it. Running a budget means only so much "fun money" a month, haha. And some of that has to go to steel too!

Frosty, I am glad that I will fit right in! I haven't joined a forum in years so I look forward to being a part of the community. I'll go take a look for Forges 101 and post more information, I do have some questions that I hope I can address before I get started. I'm planning on using a custom-made ribbon burner. Re: hot work, yes! I considered my woodshop as far as my forge goes, I don't plan to use the forge inside for a bit, if I can manage it. (And if my neighbors don't kill me!) I will be building my forge on a stand with wheels so that I can roll it out the garage door and use the heat outside. In general, I keep a pretty tidy shop, and I sweep in the corners regularly, so I hope that fires won't be too much of a problem! Regardless, I plan to have active fire suppression on hand. The garden hose will be right outside my shop door while I'm firing the forge.

Thank you to everyone! I feel so welcomed already! It hasn't even been a day since my first post and already several of you have responded to me! I appreciate your courtesy and kindness to a newbie. I am as fresh as they come, blacksmithing wise, and I look forward to growing this skill!

I have some experience welding and general metalworking from my last job, I did some structural and some nonstructural welding, and my welding instructor in college said I had very good form and with practice she thought I would be a phenomenal welder. That's not the path I plan to go, but I know that welding comes in handy with some aspects of blacksmithing.

Alright, I'm off to go find the Forges 101 page and post some info about my build!

[JHCC]

Welcome aboard! My main recommendation other than what's been suggested above is to dig into the "Consolidated Notes" thread linked by Irondragon ForgeClay Works before the Forges 101 thread; the former is a lot more concise, while the latter goes into a lot of minutiae spread out over many, many pages.

[CamCarpenter]

JHCC, thank you for the welcome! yes, I did give it a good look over, before I even wrote my response. It was very helpful, I had heard about the 2 layers of kaowool from there and having it all in one place did help a lot of what I read sink in to a right place haha

[Anachronist58]

On 5/18/2022 at 1:44 PM, CamCarpenter said:

I cannot find a "first forge build" page (without bringing up over 100,000 results)

Hello Cam, and welcome from the extreme southwestest corner of the U.S. of A.

Some find the forum structure easy to navigate - I am not one of them.  In my favorite search engines, I type: site:iforgeiron.com , and the add keywords.  I keep site:iforgeiron.com as a bookmark to make it super easy to come back to.  A number of us are lexdysic well as...

Welcome, Robert Taylor

[CamCarpenter]

Thank you, Robert, I appreciate the tip, I will use that going forward if I need to find something specific on the site. Frosty pointed me to forges 101 and I've made a post there detailing my build as best as time allowed. Thank you for the tip!

[Frosty]

See you there Cam. The forge isn't the thing that starts fires, it's the hot scale and bits that get trimmed or break off and bounce deliberately into nooks and crannies you never knew were there. 

You don't really need to reply to everybody if the conversation if on topic. If one person's statement or whatever is similar enough to someone else's say a clarification or refinement on a thought replying to both is more work on your part and not necessarily more communication. If that makes sense. 

Frosty The Lucky.