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21 Feb ’12
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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
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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...
15 Feb ’12
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ashleigh11 said
Shall we make this the official blacksmithing thread?
Yes, sounds good to me!
15 Feb ’12
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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
15 Feb ’12
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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
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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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