Karl von Wald Posted August 10, 2022 Share Posted August 10, 2022 Good morning, I am looking to get started in black smithing. Probably focused on making tools for around the house and useful items. Naturally, I would not mind making a knife or 50. Would like to give some axes a try too. I am out of west Tennessee, near Jackson. I just got my forge in, hoping to have it up and running this weekend. With this and my anvil I should be good to go. I have a decent start on my hammers, including a raising and plannishing hammers. I also have a few raising and creasing stakes, and a pair of dishing forms. I don’t know how much use they will see. I am sure I have some other toys I have forgotten about. I do have some experience working steel, I was once active in the SCA and made my own armor. Including a few helms and some articulated pieces. Ninety-five percent of that was cold work, the little hot work I did was to anneal work hardened pieces. I attempted to play with spring steel, but the metal was too thin and kept warping on quench. Also, just about everything was done in 12 to 18 gauge sheets. I grew out of the SCA and have put my hammers down. I have made a few knifes from grinding old saw blades. That kind of sums up my experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWISTEDWILLOW Posted August 10, 2022 Share Posted August 10, 2022 Howdy from eastern Oklahoma and welcome to the forum! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted August 10, 2022 Share Posted August 10, 2022 Welcome aboard! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George N. M. Posted August 10, 2022 Share Posted August 10, 2022 Welcome aboard from 7500' in SE Wyoming. Glad to have you. I suggest you look up the nearest affiliate of the Artist Blacksmith Association of North America and think seriously about joining. Being a lone eagle while trying to learn a craft is not the best way to go. Several of us here have an SCA background. You will find hot work to be very different from working metal cold. There is an expression that blacksmiths go to hell for 2 reasons, hitting cold metal and not charging enough. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted August 10, 2022 Share Posted August 10, 2022 Let's see; I joined the SCA in the fall of 1978; Stayed out of the politics and stayed in the SCA. Finally got a laurel, (asked a friend with one: "Why after 20 years?" his reply was that it was getting embarrassing to the laurels that I didn't have one due to internal politics... In knifemaking we say that 15 minutes at the forge can save an hour at the grinder---(once you have good hammer control). So tell us about your forge and anvil? Have you dressed your hammers? Most armorers call annealing what the rest of the world calls normalizing, (and is defined in metallurgy books as normalizing...) Make sure you get the jargon right when asking questions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karl von Wald Posted August 10, 2022 Author Share Posted August 10, 2022 A lot of my tools need some TLC. They have been setting around for a bit and have some surface rust. I will be dressing hammers and stakes for a bit. Looks like I am about two hours from the nearest Artist Blacksmith chapters. Thanks for the welcome and thoughts. I'll try and post some of my "cold" work later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goods Posted August 10, 2022 Share Posted August 10, 2022 Great, we love pictures. Keep it fun, David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted August 10, 2022 Share Posted August 10, 2022 Karl, we once founded a local group that was just for carpooling the 2 hours to the nearest ABANA affiliate. Lots more fun, we stopped for fleamarkets and road kill steel, and helped to keep the cost of going down. Currently I'm only 1.5 hours to an ABANA affiliate and we car pool to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted August 11, 2022 Share Posted August 11, 2022 Welcome from the Ozark mountains. For us a two hour drive to meetings is about normal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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