Right - go get a cuppa this will take a while.
I'm going to assume you have some skill with general DIY - in which case you should be able to make up most of this stuff pretty easily. Any idea of budget?
Check out Richie66's thread over on BB
http://www.britishblades.com/forums...ife-on-a-shoestring-project.....yes-you-can-!
The forge
All you need is a place to put your fuel and some form of air supply. Adding air makes the fire burn hotter.
My very first forge was simply 4 house bricks arranged in a square on the ground with a steel pipe supplying air form a double action dingy pump.
Many people use bbq's with great success. I used a tesco bbq at a bushcraft meet up in Scotland as a forge. It only cost me £3 and the paint on the underside didn't even blister.
I would suggest using a bbq - they are easy to set up and get going with. - you'll need some steel pipe (not galvanised as this gives of deadly fumes if burnt) to supply air into the fire.
Alternatively you can just point a hair drier into the fire. I've done this with great success in the past.
A good wee forge many people make is the brake drum forge - these take a little more engineering skill (or imagination/creativity) to put together. Access to a welder or some one with a welder is ideal.
http://www.anvilfire.com/FAQ-article.php?bodyName=/21centbs/forges/brkdrum1.htm&titleName=anvilfire.com%20Blacksmithing%20FAQs%20
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=br...vIcOP-wbGsNSYBg&ved=0CHQQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=675
There are also several videos on making these over on youtube.
Anvil
This is by far the hardest item to locate or bodge in the whole outfit. Essentially you need a piece of steel that has a surface area bigger than the hammer head you are using.
You can use a number of different things with great success,
http://www.anvilfire.com/21centbs/anvils/making/
This list is in order of preference - in my opinion.
Anvil: - These can be had on ebay. Picking them up elsewhere is damn near impossible but they do crop up in auctions, local magazines, scrap yards. Be prepared to spend at least £100 - there are guides to buying anvils online.
Rail Road Track - sometimes called RRT or rail track. You can get this pretty cheap at scrap merchants or sometimes with help of a rail way worker. RRT is in my opinion the best alternative to an actual anvil. You don't "need" to do anything to it - but if you have the tools you can do this:
http://www.britishblades.com/forums...nvil.-(Lots-of-pictures)&highlight=rail+anvil
I had a go at the above and I use it as my portable anvil - a cracking wee bit of kit.
Personally at the very least I would stick your piece into a large fire and dump it in cold water to ensure it is hard. - I did this with mine and it serves me very well.
Fork lift tine - By all accounts these make excellent anvils. You usually need to weld them on to something sturdy.
Caterpillar track - these are good steel and work well. No idea where to get them.
Sledge hammer head - A large sledge hammer head will make a good anvil for smaller work such as blade smithing. These resemble the Japanese round anvils. Many makes have used and still use these. Set them into a large log (cut a recess) or into a bucket of concrete.
If you can weld - and are using the concrete method - I would suggest welding a long rod to the face of the head going into the bucket - this will add mass.
One thing to bear in mind with these anvils is that the small mass will heat up very quickly - to the point where it can't be touched. I would suggest periodically cooling it with water.
I/H beam section - I put these beneath sledge hammers simply because they are not hard. However they have much more mass - especially if set up right. Lannyman uses one of these to great effect.
Steel lump - failing the above - any old lump of steel will do. A 3" across bar of steel a foot long will work very well. - this option varies quite a bit though. If you should find a cubic foot of steel at the scrap merchants with flat faces - this will work a lot better than a bit of rail track. I've heard of guys finding huge lumps of very good steel for relatively cheap - so this option is very relative.
Tim Lively uses a 4" square section of mild steel set in a bucket of concrete. - Check out his forge too
http://www.timlivelyknives.com/basicsetup.htm
Ultimately an anvil works by having mass under the hammer - the more mass the better it works. - Anvilfire suggest mounting RRT upright and using a small face of the end of the track - or welding another bit of track horizontally onto it.
What you mount the anvil on will also help. - I uses a 50+kg tree stump for my portable anvil once - and it was working better than I could imagine. Simply because of the added mass. (this only works if the anvil is securely mounted I add)
Tools:
As said - any hammer will do though a 1.5-2lb ball pein hammer will work well enough. - I assume you already have a few.
Tongs: These are pretty essential. Again they can be had on ebay but they are not cheap. They can be bodged easily enough though.
http://www.britishblades.com/forums/showthread.php?140055-Recent-tongs&highlight=
Richie also makes tongs in the knife on a shoe string thread.
Fire tools: - These should be the first things you make. - a poker and a rake are very good starting out projects and will be used throughout your smithing career. The first set I ever made are still in use today.
I suggest a rake first - very useful.
As for your projects - start our small. Forge a few tools. And have a go at tongs if you feel up to it.
For strikers and knives I'd recommend using old files. These can be had very cheap at carboot sales and markets. The steel is easy enough to work and hardens very well.
Hope this helps
Andy
