Origin backstories

[George N. M.]

All of us have had something that sent us down the blacksmith craft road.  Some of us have mentioned it in passing but I think it would be interesting to gather them in a single thread.  It will show that there are many, many routes to the craft.  So, how did y'all come to be blacksmiths?  Did you take a class, and if so why?  Was a friend or relative a smith?  Did you read about it or see it on the TV or internet and think that it would be cool?  Did you want to make something, like a knife, and discovered that you had to learn the craft to get to that end point?  Was there some other outside influence that sent you in this direction?  Were you a metal worker like a welder or machinist and this was just an extension of skills?

For me, I was working as a geologist in Riverton, WY (west central part of the state, about halfway between Casper and the Tetons) in 1978 and on a whim went to an auction.  There was a rivet forge and a 100# Vulcan anvil in the sale.  I had always been kind of interested in the craft and I had fairly recently become involved with the Society for Creative Anachronism, a medieval reenactment group, and blacksmithing seemed a cool, medieval craft.  So, I bought both the anvil and forge for $25 each and started out by getting books from the library and I found some very nasty, slaked (weathered) coal, and rehabilitated the blower of the forge which was covered in pine sap and had a nest from something packed into the blower blades.  After I got it up and running and started hitting hot metal I discovered that I liked it and it has been a part of my life for the last 46 years.

George

[gewoon ik]

As seen on youtube.

Always made stuff, first repairing my car, than that needed welding so came more fabrication and a tiny bit machining (on borrowed tools, guy moved, so did his tools, never machined again). Waching youtube for info, ideas, ... and came across the channel of torbjörn åhman in my feed. Hmmm blacksmithing, what is that. And 3 year later was corona and as soon as the smithing lessons started, i was enrolled and smithing.

Still smithing, still lessons to this day. Still having fun.

 

[BillyBones]

Smithing and in general working with my hands has been a part of my life for as long as i can remember. From the time me and my grandpa made our first lead pour, to nailing 2 boards together, to troweling concrete, to the first time me and my dad worked on cars. When i was a kid i would take nails, heat them up with a propane torch, and make little knives with them. Then as a teen i was into D&D and wanted to make swords and daggers. When i got out of the military i went to work in a machine shop. That is where i got my first taste of metallurgy. Fast forward a few years and my therapist at the VA suggested a hobby. Around that same time i learned that you do not need a whole bunch of special equipment to heat metal and shape it. So i built a forge in my backyard and got an "anvil". That is when the mystery of steel really too a bite. 

I have taken no classes and only read maybe 2 books. Everything i have done has been self taught by watching others. I have always had the attitude that if you can do it so can i. When i was in high school i was a pretty good artist in ink and pencil. My art teacher then commented once that i have a natural ability to use negative space. Those pictures where they ask "what do you see first" like the one of the young lady and the old lady in one drawing, i can almost always see both immediately. Which i beleive also gives me a better than average ability to "see outside the box" so to say. 

When i studied the Tao Te Ching one lesson always stuck with me "it is what is not there that makes something useful". 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

My intro to blacksmithing as a child was listening to my grandfathers exploits about his Army deployment with Gen. Blackjack Pershing in the Mexican campaign, chasing Poncho Villa around the southwest. He was a blacksmith that was reassigned as a mechanic when the Army was transitioning to mechanization from mules & horses.

Jump forward several decades, when we would come to the Ozark’s and visit Silver Dollar City in Branson MO. There was a working blacksmith there who’s name was Tiny Robinson (if I recall) and any time my wife would look for me she knew where to look. I remember one time he was demonstrating how to make a Russian wrapped rose and it fascinated me how he could make the metal move into a beautiful rose.

Now jump to 1984 when I was a rookie police officer working the midnight shift. There was a working blacksmith shop in the town. One morning before sunup, I saw a red glow coming from one of the windows and thought someone had broken into the shop or there was a fire starting. Well while checking it out, it was a fire and the blacksmith was just starting his day firing up the forge.

Hence my introduction to my mentor Isaac (Ike) Doss. We seemed to hit it off right away and I learned he was a master smith with some of his work in the Smithsonian Institute and he had given many demonstrations there in his younger days. He was 84 at that time and still working six days a week. He would walk carrying his lunch box, the six blocks from home to the shop. He taught me how to build and maintain a coal fire and a lot of basics of blacksmithing. He also told me how to make my own bottom blast coal forge, which I still use to this day.

Now comes the hard part. One morning, I was detailed to a traffic accident involving a pedestrian on the city square. I immediately saw it was Ike who had been hit and EMS arrived at the same time. Ike never recovered from his injuries and passed away in 1991. For a lot of years, I didn’t have the heart to fire up my forge. Then one day I needed a part for my old tractor and forged it with some of the knowledge he hammered into my head. That along with my wife becoming interested in blacksmithing/bladesmithing and there is again coal smoke on our mountain.

BTW she is becoming an excellent knife maker. Sometimes she will use a knife blank I forged and turn it into a very good knife. I don't like all the finishing work involved and she is a perfectionist so my rough blanks get their proper due.

[Frosty]

I think we've done this before, maybe Steve knows which thread but I'm not averse to talking.

I grew up around metal working, Dad was a metal spinner and machinist who always had a spinning lathe where we lived to do side work. Sometimes in a garage, sometimes a shed, most often in a basement. Some of my earliest memories are sitting in the living room after dinner while Mother and Dad cut blanks with tin snips. Dad would be the stock square sheared but we had to cut them into circular blanks. I don't know how old I was but I remember being shown how to mark center with a ruler and pencil. I had me a job!

Anyway, when I could safely move around in his shop I went to work. Started sweeping, wiping machines down and oiling them, then I kept the spinning lathe stocked with blanks and carried parts to either the next breakdown step or stacked them in boxes. 

I was running the circle shear and punch press when I was 8 and have been running machinery since.

Well, when the folks were at work and I was home from school or the folks wanted me out of the way, I watched TV. There's an episode of, "Have Gun Will Travel," where Paladin is bushwhacked and robbed. He's left for dead in the wilderness, comes to and begins kitting himself out. All they left him were his long johns, no food, water, nothin. He finds a wagon train that had been wiped out by Indians and stripped. He finds some water in a barrel and a couple useful things, one a hammer. Builds a fire from a broken wagon wheel, collects iron from it and one of the things he forges is a knife. He makes other things but the forged knife really stuck. He makes clothing from remains from the Conestoga covers (using his knife) kills a porcupine with his knife. Uses quills to sew pants shirt and hat and other stuff I suppose. Other things he forges are dart points, toasting fork, etc.( I suppose he had other stuff) Whittles an ATLATL and darts with the knife of course, kills a grouse or similar with a sling and fletches the darts while he eats.

Then Paladin goes hunting for the bandits who robbed him.

Most of the episode is fuzzy but what really spoke to my soul was his ability to make the tools to make what he needed with little more than a fire and hammer.

From then on I wanted to be a blacksmith, I didn't want to be helpless anywhere.(The realism of a 6yro, eh?) Dad actively discouraged me though, "Learn a paying trade Butch." I was and am too stubborn to be swayed without good reason but didn't really pursue it till I'd left home.

It wasn't till decades later when my little Sis and I were visiting Uncle Fred on the Olympic Peninsula  I learned the rest of the story. Uncle Fred introduced me to a neighbor lady who was selling her husbands things. He used to go to coffee at the local cafe every morning and one morning the mail man found him dead in the front seat of his idling pickup.

I had no way to buy much of his gear and I would dearly love to bought his bench top 10lb. Little Giant power hammer. 

Talking to Uncle Fred I found out Dad had worked for a blacksmith sharpening plow shears on a 50lb. Little Giant for something like $0.25/week IF he met quota. He was too young and small to get a better job but he could hold a plow shear under the hammer.

Hated blacksmithing ever since. Well, until I started presenting the folks with forged goodies from my HOBBY blacksmithing. It took me I don't know how long to convince I wanted to abuse HOT steel for fun, not a paycheck.

I developed the T burner because good smithing coal is hard to come by here even though I can look out the north door at the S. foothills of the Talkeetna mtn. range and huge deposits of all grades of coal. Heck, there are thick strata a few hundred feet under me now.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

 

[Jimw3326]

My journey isn't as elegant as y'all's. Started working in my dad's business at 13 sweeping and counting out nuts and bolts from bulk boxes into 100 lots. A Navy vet would teach me how to weld during down time. A few years later we started up a fab division to compliment the main business that I ran. A few decades later I came across FiF and it really appealed to me. Signed up here in '16 and did a ton of reading and u-tubes, built a forge and started the therapy. Now I'm in the process of setting up my shop to utilize some of the equipment that I've acquired to take the load off my ageing hands.  

[Chad J.]

I've always been good at building things.   I  like to say there's nothing I can't make.   When i was a kids I was into art,  drawing, some clay work, but my love was wood working.   I carved a gladius out of a 2x4  around 14 or 15 but didn't think of actual blacksmithing.   When I was 18 or 19 I had a number of knives in my wall locker on LeJune and I remember sitting out on a picnic table saying I'd love to learn how to make a knife some time.   Alas I got married,  had kids, got out of the Marines after 11 years and I had forgotten about it.   Did a bit of ghost hunting back when it was big and one of the team members started trying to make knives.  This was when FIF started up.   Unlike said friend, I started paying attention to FIF, taking notes, and asking what aren't they showing me?  I didn't have the money I thought I needed and definately didn't have the space.  After my divorce I started trying to get everything I needed together but had no idea where I could set was set up.   We have a cabin north of the Wisconsin Dells where my wood shop was sitting unused and my daughter asked me to build her a coffin bookshelf.   As part of that I tried to make some handles.  I built my first attempt at a forge from a kettle grill,  some bricks that were laying around, downspout,  and a leaf blower.  Didn't work but I was hooked.  From that point I made a propane burner from a turkey cooker,  cutting off the end and sticking it in an 8 inch pipe going into a hard fire brick forge and finding myself a better anvil.  My gf at the time let me set up in her back yard, then I bought my house with the current shop.  I've outgrown FIF for the most part, unless I feel like yelling at my tv, but I have fond memories of it because it started me on the journey in earnest.  For fun in adding in the picture of the kettle forge because that was the start. 

[BsnNFrnt]

My body will no longer tolerate lifting weights heavy enough to be the strongest guy in the gym. I needed another hobby that will ensure a firm handshake and an overall indifference to polite society. I am also drawn to the natural pragmatism of building your own equipment. Most of my knowledge comes from this site and a couple of short meetings with some guys that know what they are doing. 

[Shainarue]

Ha, well I always feel a bit odd-(wo)man-out when it comes to these origin stories as I had absolutely zero knowledge/exposure/experience in anything metal related nor mechanical in nature. Until 2022, my experience with "power tools" was a drill and a circular saw. I've always enjoyed working with my hands but awful at measuring/cutting to size, accuracy, following complex directions, etc. I still don't know a LOT but I'm learning as the opportunity deems necessary. (Remembering what I've learned, on the other hand .... )
Another (maybe) interesting tidbit: I'd never heard of the show FIF until after I was fully immersed into the craft. And I've still only seen a few snippets that people share on social media. That's the most common response I hear from people new to blacksmithing like me - but in my case, this was a purely accidental discovery.

Anyway - how I came into the craft of blacksmithing: In July 2021 my coworker/friend stumbled across a class at a local makerspace that was to create a "Viking's Fork" (basically a long firepit skewer with a curlicue handle and twisted shaft) and asked if I'd go with her. I enjoyed it so much that when they offered a rose making class in May 2022, I jumped into that as well. I wasn't as fulfilled with the rose making though, as it was mostly just watching the plasma cutting machine cut out the blanks and then tweaking the blanks into shape with a propane torch. Then in June 2022 they offered another class for "Fancy Twists" that I took. Made a "mumblety peg" which is basically just a 12" x 1/2" square bar with a blunt taper on one end and whatever fancy twist you wanted on the other end. We learned the cube twist & stairstep twist using a pneumatic cutoff tool and bandsaw. So other than learning cutting grooves into the bar can result in some fun looking twists, I again didn't learn much in the way of new skills. Anyway - those classes were expensive so I started looking into what it would take to get a basic setup started on my back patio on the super cheap, since I wasn't sure yet if I'd stick with it. I figured I'd find some YouTube videos and learn on my own.

Enter IFI. This forum is where I learned about JABOD forges and so much more. The classes I'd taken had us working on railroad rails so I already knew that was an option for the anvil. I found a friend who knew a guy that worked on the railroad and he gifted her a piece of "scrap" rail which she gifted to me. I received some advice from members here. I found a video from JLP Services to practice consistent spreading and I checked out a few beginner project books from the library and made a few things. Jennifer & Glenn both helped me with my hammer swing & stance via video messages. I also attended my first BAM meeting, where I made my first leaf and found out about a local-ish instructor with an intensive 3-day beginners blacksmithing course.  I think that beginner's course is when I truly fell in love with the craft. Learning the basic techniques and how various striking angles affect things - and seeing around the instructor's shop what was possible with time and practice was quite inspiring. 

About a month after that course, I knew 100% I was sticking with this and got into contact with Billy (TwistedWillow) to get a post vise and a bigger anvil, as well as a bunch of scrap to make jigs, forge into things, or whatever else I might use it for, lol. Billy was my first blacksmithing friend and I'm grateful to this forum for bringing us together.

Picture of my first backyard patio setup, which I used for about 2 months before upgrading to a rivet forge found by my MIL in her late father-in-law's barn and Billy sold me an anvil & post vise. Funny, I'm currently back to using the railroad rail & bench vise on the driveway at the new place until I get something situated for the bigger stuff.

 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Nice setup, although I would move the forge closer to the anvil to save steps and losing heat in the stock. Another nice thing is the hammock to plop down in, to look at and listen to the birdies for relaxation.

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s.
Semper Paratus

 

[Shainarue]

Irondragon, that was my very first setup. It's gone through many iterations since. Always situating the anvil and vise within 2 steps of the forge so I can just pivot to whatever I need.

That hammock will be sorely missed. It was indeed the perfect reminder to kick back and relax when I started making mistakes or just wanted a break.

[Nobody Special]

I started reading everything I could get at about age 3, which eventually led to a bunch of eclectic hobbies like knitting, beekeeping, paper cutting and all sorts of weirdness and being broke a lot helped me learn to be handy. I don't remember what drew me in to smithing; I picked up Weyger's book and a Chinese ductile iron ASO around 2004 or so at Ft. Hood, but I started with metal casting first because I thought it would be safer and easier. Feel free to snicker, it's funny now.

When I came back from Iraq in 08 I started playing around with forging bits of grounding rod I heated in my casting furnace, which went about like you'd expect. When I got to Georgia a couple of years later, I read a couple of books and watched some youtube and made something like a jabod with a rotor for a firepot in an upside-down lawnmower, filled in with the same homemade refractory I had been using in casting and forging on the ASO.

Eventually, I found better books and youtube blacksmiths, started hanging out on here in chat and for the lessons, and improved my equipment. Stan Schwartz, aka trying-it was a big help, but got banned after butting heads with the administrators (he was often generous and helpful but could be stubborn). Life changes stopped me from forging for the last few years (my last wife moved in with an 83-year old horse farmer, then I moved up here and married my old high school sweetheart, but limited living space and left my equipment in GA). I started up again two or three months ago, albeit a lot has been setting back up and metalwork has been only once or twice a week.

 

[BillyBones]

Nobody, who were you with at Ft Hood? I was there with A co. 3/8 Cav in 93/94. Our barracks was across the street from Popeye's chicken if it was still there.

[Nobody Special]

B Co., 15 MI BN, 504th MI Bde, out near Robert Gray airfield, mid-03 to late 05. Used to see Air Force One come in to restock when Bush flew in at Waco. Had a 73 Mustang back then and a few times I got buzzed by the fighters escorting him when they wanted to get a look.

[bluerooster]

I've been working cold steel since 1982, in the autobody repair business.  I'd gotten to the point that I can usually make sheet metal do what I want it to with hammer and dolly.   After watching an episode or two of FIF, I figured that I can do that. After all, I've been moving cold steel for near 40 years, hot steel moves easier, right?  That's when I started to learn.  I fabricated a "forge".  Bottom blast trench, to burn charcoal.  My anvil was a couple of stacked  plates of 1/2" steel.  I was able to heat metal, and beat metal, but, not what I wanted.  Burned a lot of charcoal, to get very little done.  My first welding attempt turned into a splat of sparks, and nothing left.  (hit too hard)    I had a little metallurgical knowledge gleaned from one of the shops where I worked.  We did a lot of restoration work on old cars.  With a motto of "That which can't be had, can be made".   Our machine shop came straight from the turn of the century, (late 1800's/early 1900's) We had a lath, bandsaw, and shaper.  All run from flat belt on overhead shaft.  We also had, upstairs, a home made surfacing machine, and Souix valve grind machine.  I was handed a copy of The Machinery Handbook From 1948, and was told "this is your bible".    I learned a lot reading that book.  Anyway, back to the forge.  My charcoal forge wasn't very efficient and lump charcoal being cheap per bag, but expensive in the number of bags required. I decided to build a coal forge, and did. While it wasn't the very best to be had, it worked well, with a hairdryer for a blower.  My first coal fire was, well, I'm glad the neighbors aren't close.  Green coal smokes, a lot!  But the forge worked quite well.  But was not well designed, and rather thin material. I used it for quite some time, but decided to build another, of better design.   I don't recall why I built the third design, but it's the best of them all.  While we "trust in rust", The rust flakes from an overhead hood cause clinker, and lots of it. I built a side draft which works surprisingly well as long as the wind doesn't blow too much.  I've learned lots of things blacksmithing. from IFI, Jennifers videos, and Black Bear Forge, and that guy from Europe that doesn't talk much.   I built a decent anvil from a five foot long 250 pound piece of steel, and am still using it today.  The majority of smithing has been making tools to work with.   Tongs, chisels, punches, hardy tools, post vise, etc.   I learned how to make fire pokers, thumb latches, hinges, hooks, tried a few leaves, bottle openers, church keys (which require a special punch), Gas keys (another special punch), dragon heads,  Very few blades, which is why I started smithing.  But that's OK. I did make a dagger, and a drawknife, a couple of letter openers, and some junk blades. Lot's of junk blades.  

The beautiful, and varied work shown here is what keeps me going to try new (to me) things.   I've yet to find a blacksmith within a days drive from here, but I can buy smithing coal local. go figure.   Lots of farriers around, and I guess enough of them use coal to warrant the local farrier supply to keep it in stock.  The ones that I know use propane.   I would like to meet up with a local smith, but it seems that there aren't any.  So, the school of hard knocks is where i'll learn.  I would like very much to get out to visit some of the members on here before I get too old to do so.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

I don't know how close you are to the Alabama line, but the Alabama Forge Council have chapters & meetings and events all over the state. Some may be close enough to attend. Might want to check them out on their web site.

https://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/100-alabama-forge-council/

https://alaforge.org/

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s.
Semper Paratus

 

[BoardMoreThanUsual]

It was way way back in May of 2023 when i went to the mrs family house in NYC to help her bring some stuff home from their basement that was being cleared out. Her father was an artist and sculptor so there was a lot of cool stuff down there. The sister asked me if i could carry this old anvil up to the curb for the junk/trash/ collector. i thought it would be cool to keep it clean it up as a display piece and memory for the mrs  of her time as a child with her father helping him in the basement.

i came across this forum while looking for direction on identifying and cleaning up the anvil. within a few short responses i was talked in to trying my hand at the craft/hobby.

After 100s of you tube videos and yard sales , local artisan blacksmith group, super informative and friendly forum members even one local to me that invited me up to his shop (thanks Stash) i am in the beginning stages of my journey into blacksmithing. i have not had any formal classes yet but i am on a local mailing list for when they start this years classes so hopefully that will come soon enough.