Blacksmithing Course

[Harmonica]

I am considering attending a three day blacksmithing course at a school in Stockton:-

http://www.school-of-blacksmithing.co.uk/

Has anyone here been on one of the courses or something similar elsewhere - if so what was your opinion of it and of the skills you learnt? I doubt i would be able to set up a forge in my garage at home (though suggestions may be sought for that in due course) but it may simply be fun to spend a weekend trying something a bit different.

 

[EdS]

not done the course but I spent a lot of time watching the smith at Preston Park when I was a kid.

If you getsome more details I'd be up for it as well.

 

[woodwalker]

I can help you out on the forge, you just need a source of air blowing (I use an airbed inflator) and if you prefer to have things more contained, a couple of bricks are handy and a metal lid, but they are now way essential. I use them to contain the sparks.

The one pictured gets a piece of metal from cold to red hot (or white if you want it) in about 3 mins ish.

Here is the setup; just a steel pipe running under the earth a bit and into the bottom of a shallow pit wher the charcoal is. (Charcoal burns so much more cleanly than coal, virtually no smoke and you can make it yourself too!)

any questions, don't hesitiate

woodwalker

 

[Harmonica]

Wow thanks for that Woodwalker - may wait and see how i get on before building one though.

Eds - full details are on the site linked too - I am looking at the three day beginers course in April which costs £240 and then if it goes well doing the tool making course on which you make a set of blacksmiths tools to take home with you. I think the two courses would together give me a good grounding in the skill as well as a basic toolkit with which to continue

 

[jon r]

I've always fancied a bash at blacksmithing! I dont have a forge but you just solved that problem for me Woodwalker!

The other problem is that i dont have an Anvil or any specialist tools! I have seen that anvils are very expencive to buy so is there anything else you could use like a brick or rock?

On the tools side of things, could i extend a pair of pliers with metal handles and then just use a norman hammer?

 

[Eric_Methven]

My first anvil was a piece of railway line. You could also use a rock, or if you can find a granite cobble stone (like they used to pave the roads with) that would do. It depends on what you want to make. Small items like knife blades only need a small area on which to hammer. A broken drive shaft off a truck, ground flat on one end and sunk into an upturned log will suffice for many hammering jobs. The secret of successful hammering is mass. You need to provide something that is solid and won't give under the hammer blows. You want the hot metal to yield, not the anvil. Anything hard will do and fix it to something solid like a sawn off tree trunk. Make sure it is flat on the ground, or better still, half burried. When you hit it, you should hear it ring like a bell. The forge can be as simple as a scrape hole in the garden with your hair dryer on an extention lead, or two bricks side by side with a propane torch blowing between them. As for tongs, a molegrip wrench will do for starters.

Eric

 

[Dave Budd]

getting together enough tools to set up a small forge and wotnot isn't tricky, you can improvise most things nad what you can't improvise you can usually make

Re courses, that depends what you want to learn? Pete Oberon is a very good teahcer and runs a blacksmithing school, though he is pricey adn deals mainly with ornimental iron work. Bob Oakes is the same (in all respects), I've been on a couple of his courses (I was getting a grant to pay for it, no way I could afford to otherwise ). If you want to learn to make things useful for bushcraft or cutting tools, well, pm sent

Most of the smithing schools have websites too, try googling them

 

[chrisanson]

I've always fancied a bash at blacksmithing! I dont have a forge but you just solved that problem for me Woodwalker!

The other problem is that i dont have an Anvil or any specialist tools! I have seen that anvils are very expencive to buy so is there anything else you could use like a brick or rock?

On the tools side of things, could i extend a pair of pliers with metal handles and then just use a norman hammer?

my firt anvil was a Sledgehammer held in the vice. For just occasional forging any old steel will do the bigger the better. I now have some anvils I made my self but still use the sledge!