Blacksmithing Question

[Camroc2020]

So i am starting off the ball rolling on getting into blacksmithing and need some serious advise.

Firstly and formostly should i make a forge (i have literally no skills in metal working or welding) or buy one.

Secondly i need an anvil but i am hard pressed for cash as I have a family and a Partner with Aspergers so money is a wee bit tight as i am the sole income earner.

Can anyone point me in the right direction and whether i should build slowly by starting with hammers, aprons and the like?

 

[Mesquite]

I'm no blacksmith but I've seen forges made from holes in the ground ala Dave Budd bbq pits, car tyre rims, and the air supply for them from camp bed pumps, hair driers etc.

Anvils people have used sections of railway rails and sledge hammers

Hammers have been whatever they had to hand so you can start small and build up slowly

 

[Dave Budd]

Yup, don't need much kit to forge things

forge: something to contain the fuel, air supply and means of getting the air in. That could be a hole in the ground, wok, pile of bricks, washtub, etc. Air bed inflator, hairdryer (better), vaccum cleaner, bellows. Tuyere (the pipe that gets air in) can be a steel pipe, clay pipe or if bottom blast then a metal grate over some metal pipes.

Anvil: solid lump of something that will not melt or burn under hot steel and is larger than the hammer you are hitting it with. That could be a rail line (not my preference), sledge hammer head, lump of steel from scrappy, large flat topped rock, granite kerb stone, etc. Just mount it really solidly, such as in a log or bucket of concrete

Tools: hammer, anything will do but look for 1 to 3lb ball or cross peens rather than lump hammers. Tongs, ebay is easiest, sometimes boot sales and the like; also mole grips work as do large pliers in a pinch. Aprons, don't worry about those but welders suppliers have then cheap. A cold chisel ground to a sharper edge is what you need for cutting hot steel.

That's about it really

 

[sausage100uk]

Bbq with a charity shop hairdryer underneath. Sledge hammer head for an anvil. Lump hammer for twatting the steel. Start small (think blanket pins and fire steel)

Sent from my LG-D802 using Tapatalk

 

[Tengu]

Remember those fantastic Japanese swors were made on a lump of iron the size and dimensions of an oilstone.

 

[Navek]

Video on YouTube how Dave cantubury makes a forge from a car brake drum and hair drier...as for an anvil can be made from an old piece of rail way line/track

 

[santaman2000]

Yup, don't need much kit to forge things ......Tools:........A cold chisel ground to a sharper edge is what you need for cutting hot steel.

That's about it really

The students going through the Air Force's welding school had to forge their own cold chisel as one of their training projects.

 

[Robson Valley]

Use the above DIY/Make-Do solutions. I would if I had the time and the space.
Only then will you know what questions to ask.
I got as far as a propane torch, a 2lb hammer and a piece of rail track. Just simple bashing with 1/4" copper rod.
What am I missing?
A pair of fairly long-handled tongs.
A flat stone to set hot work on.

 

[Everything Mac]

What you need really depends on what you want to make. The mistake I often see beginners make is to assume they need to make a pair of tongs right away, which is just not true. I'm as guilty as anyone of this.

When you're starting out try to use material that is long enough for you to hold on to for as much of the work as possible. Getting used to using tongs is easily one of the hardest parts of the trade.

What do you already have Camroc? A decent sized sledge hammer makes a good anvil and you can pick them up for pennies at markets and scrap yards.

All the best
Andy

 

[Whittler Kev]

All above true but you soon want the "real" tools which are getting more expensive. Fleabay has anvils making up to £250 each now :Wow:
I use a propane forge donated to me as I find it so much more controllable but doesn't get as hot as coal fired. You'll find you take up a lot of room to make anything as well IMHO

 

[milius2]

welcome to the wild side of life
Let me be a slightly upsetting kind of guy....
The first thing you need to know in whatever you want to call blacksmithing - there is no rules! And there is KNOWLEDGE. When you know things and the goals you aim for is real, there is very little from stopping you. I've seen people using stones as an anvil and feet driven air pumps to make some sort of heat where they make all kind of tools. But non the less it's a skill that many of us are YET to master. So... If you want to blacksmith, think primitive skills, very basic, no expense, beg-steal-borrow type of thing. FIND someone local to help you;;;;

 

[mrcharly]

I forged a (poor) blade in my back yard with my son, years ago.

Dug a hole 2ft deep in a pile of dirt, filled it with wood trimmed off trees in the garden. Lit that, covered with wet plank and dirt once it was burning well.

Next evening, took the top off. Most of it was charcoal. Dug a hole to the bottom of the pit with arm (like playing sandcastles) and stuck a bit of old vacuum cleaner tube in it. Hair drier at one end of that.

Lit the charcoal, had a bit of steel, a ball-peen hammer, some mole grips, leather gardening gloves, bit of I beam. Got my son to hold hair driver to the vacuum cleaner tube or take away as needed. First bit of steel melted away (or burnt away, was hard to tell) very fast.

Anyway, it sort of worked. I hammered a bevel and a curve to the steel to make a spoon knife, then tried heating and quenching it to harden it. Must have worked, a file skated off afterwards.

So you don't need much, or much space.

 

[santaman2000]

I forged a (poor) blade in my back yard with my son, years ago.

Dug a hole 2ft deep in a pile of dirt, filled it with wood trimmed off trees in the garden. Lit that, covered with wet plank and dirt once it was burning well.

Next evening, took the top off. Most of it was charcoal. Dug a hole to the bottom of the pit with arm (like playing sandcastles) and stuck a bit of old vacuum cleaner tube in it. Hair drier at one end of that.

Lit the charcoal, had a bit of steel, a ball-peen hammer, some mole grips, leather gardening gloves, bit of I beam. Got my son to hold hair driver to the vacuum cleaner tube or take away as needed. First bit of steel melted away (or burnt away, was hard to tell) very fast.

Anyway, it sort of worked. I hammered a bevel and a curve to the steel to make a spoon knife, then tried heating and quenching it to harden it. Must have worked, a file skated off afterwards.

So you don't need much, or much space.

Indeed. The following paragraph is exerted from the Khukuri House website:

"The Kukri/knife begins as a piece of high-grade steel, a chunk of railway track or car spring being the material of choice although trunk springs serve nearly as well. A length is sliced from the rail, and repeatedly heated and hammered on the anvil, which is usually a sledge-hammer or a maul head embedded in the ground alongside the charcoal-fueled forge. Finally the blade is annealed and fine tempered with water poured from a teapot. The forges are little more than holes in the ground and serve as the smiths’ stove, the rice pot or the singeing chicken being whisked off and on as the incandescent billet of steel passes from furnace to anvil and back."