21 Feb ’12
Any time you can score a anvil grab it. The heavier the better. Usually $2 a pound was the going price for a anvil in great used shape. With forges I enjoyed using a propane forge at the start. There was already more then enough to learn without heating, blowing etc. I was old in a shed in the middle of winter as well, so instant heat happening was a bonus.
The power hammer is great for spreading stock or fancy stuff like Damascus billets. After a while it feels rather slow when you are only getting a couple good swings in while the piece is truly hot enough. With the hammer ... if in a grooove, maybe 20-40 or more before back into the fire.
Might I suggest look at your forge as something you might be smelting on as well. Making aluminum castings is pretty fun. Just something nice and caveman about pouring a molten metal.
18 Feb ’12
I plan on making a gas forge eventually, but I have a habit of starting a ton of projects at once and not finishing all of them. I think I'll get a couple hundred thousand hammer swings in before I add anything else.
I do plan on making a small foundry. Something like this...
Hessian said
My forge is in the same country as me now finally. I'm down for some projects.Ash a lot of the welding I have had to do with blacksmith stuff has been making billets.
Anyone ever made a power-hammer? For us folks getting older it would be a nice treat for the tennis elbow.
that is brilliant
ashleigh11 said
I'm excited. I have a week off work coming up and I'll be building my forge. I'll start out using charcoal. I don't know how the neighborhood would react to a coal fire. I have a gas grill i haven't used in about 4 years. I'm going to line it with firebricks, leaving a trough down the middle for a tuyere. There's a couple of mods I'll have to do to the grill like getting rid of the gas burner at one end, drilling a hole for the tuyere and cutting down one end for feeding long stock. I think one of the first things I'll make are replacements for the plastic pieces on the grill and tool hooks for the front. I don't have a blower yet, but we'll see in the next few days.I mentioned blacksmithing, and needing an anvil and tools to a guy I work with who also farms. He tried his hand at blacksmithing and gave it up, so he's selling me a 200# anvil for $50. He said he'll throw in the stump it's attached to for free. He also has a bunch of tools, I'll probably make him an offer. Hopefully he has a blower he wants to get rid of.
I was also talking to my father in law about starting blacksmithing and he gave me a 5 gallon bucket full of hammers, clamps, a pair of tongs, and a steel piece that's used in bridge construction for holding sections of decking together. It's about 2 ft long, I-shaped, and weighs about 30# and will be useful if I ever need a portable or smaller anvil.
I'll be working outside, next to our garage. I'll cement 2 4x4's into the ground and try and get ahold of some scrap metal roofing. My only concern is that the siding on the garage is vinyl and if a cinder or piece of slag burns through the siding, there's 90 year old clapboard underneath.
We have a steel supply store here in town that I've shopped at before. They have a tons of scraps for cheap so I'll be shopping there more frequently.
Ash, you can use some cement board against the siding to help protect it
18 Feb ’12
I've been watching a lot of this guy's videos.
https://www.youtube.com/user/TechnicusJoe
I love watching him work. Watch this video starting at 6:00. He's forging a custom cross pein hammer and uses it to make an Aspen leaf. I think it's amazing how he thins out the sides of the leaf with just a couple of hammer blows, leaving the leaf spine.
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