Say, any of you fellas smithies? Or, if not smithies per se, were you otherwise trained in the metallurgic arts before straitened circumstances forced you down a path of aimless wandrin?
After years of watching YouTube tutorials on weapon making, blacksmithing, forges and foundries, and thinking “that looks so satisfying, I’d like to do that someday,” I’ve finally decided to take some tangible steps and give it a try. I found 90% of what I’ll need lying around the house, surrounding property and garage. With a limited amount of tools and even more limited funds, my plan is to build a brick coal forge and do things the old fashioned way.
Yesterday I gathered tools and materials:
A bunch of spare bricks and broken cinderblocks from under my porch, where windows and a door were cut out of the house to make a ground entrance when I was little. I’ll make the forge out of these.
I have a few hammers, a set of files, a set of heavy hole punches, some channellocks and vice grips to use as tongs for handling hot steel, an angle grinder (although I need new wheels for cutting, wire brushing and soft buffing). I have a shop vac which I will use to blow air into the forge.
For an anvil I’m either going to get a small 15 dollar one from harbor freight, or possibly use this trailer hitch ball assembly I found in the garage for the present. It’s a large steel box with a folding trailer ball. I imagine it’s meant to be bolted into the bed of a truck for towing. It’s the heaviest, flattest piece of steel I can find.
On my shopping list I still need: wire brushes, a belt sander (or there’s an old sharpening wheel in my storage building if I can rebuild it or run it off the motor for something else, that may come into play later)... and plenty of other tools like a drill press, planes and saws would make the job of crafting handles a lot easier, but I think I can get started more or less with what I have on hand.
One thing that’s nice about having a pack rat for a father is there’s no shortage of scrap materials in my garage left over from the farm or his obsession with trucks and machinery. I’ve got buckets of railroad spikes, old wrenches and rusty tool heads galore, all of which I could theoretically reforge into some nice knives and hatchet heads.
Today I got to work digging into the hill behind the sand circle where an above ground pool used to sit. I’ve leveled off a nice little nook into the hill behind a retainer wall of railroad ties, and stacked my bricks in. Ive more or less got the forge assembled. Tonight or tomorrow I’m going to fill it with charred wood from my burn pile and fire her up, see how it does.
Anyone with any tips or experience feel free to speak up; I have very little idea what I’m doing, but I’m a lethally quick study. So what the hell, might as well give it a go.. Let the pounding begin! clink 
I apologize, some of these pics are blurry. Either my phone lense is dirty or autofocus is acting up under dusky conditions. But you can get an idea.
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7 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.This is so awesome. I know nothing of smithing, but I have started taking a welding class...
Nottheonlyone
Level 7
Aug 30, 2019
1
Nice what type of welding? Id like to figure out at least one type of welding too but that’ll take some pricier equipment later.
@Wurlitzer MIG welding. An all-women's class. So fun! I'm only starting to get good at it, but I'm only three classes in.
I am SERIOUSLY excited for you! I might get into knives eventually but I bought cutting torches and a MIG welder for what I wanted to do.
I built my house to look vintage... Old white oak flooring and new siding that looks old. Hard to believe you pay extra for that these days. anyway.. I wanted to make my own shelving brackets as I fell in love with some in Old Town Fredericksburg but the guy wanted $80 per bracket and I needed a bunch. It was cheaper for me to buy the torches, welder and steel and do it myself.
Once my brackets were built I bought 1" thick oak shelves and then fired them with the rosebud tip on the torch... After sanding and oil... they look 200 years old and match the rusty steel brackets.
I wanted some BIG sconces for my big great room. The largest I could find were way too small. So I built my own with steel and then hammered out copper, rolled it out on an English wheel, fire treated it to give it some color and then mounted it all.
Now I am working on a chandelier for my dining room. For this I am also coppersmithing leaves to mix with the rusty steel.. The attached picture shows the overall (partial) design... Though I just removed the copper leaves and decided to remove some of the rust and I am going to try to brown the steel (like gun barrel bluing, except brown) to give it an aged patina.
So... My thoughts... Get going with what you have on hand! Just start! As stated below, avoid the Harbor Freight anvil... Look on Craigslist. I bought a $100 railroad anvil that got me started. A guy on Craigslist was making custom ones and he even customized it with my property name on the end. Pretty cool. I eventually found an older 150 pound anvil at an antique store for $450. I mounted it on a wheeled oak post that I can use anywhere.
Harbor Freight has its uses on some stuff. The english wheel I bought there is as good as any around. The pipe/tubing bender required some work to make it a little more sturdy.
Have fun and get going! You'll have a blast and learn a lot!
RiverRick
Level 7
Aug 30, 2019
1
Thanks, beautiful pieces you’ve made there! I’ve always had a love of primitive tech, vintage nostalgia, old fashioned methods. Steel, iron, brass, and wood have so much character, especially in handworked things built to last. Also I’ve got to find a way to work for myself; I’m done punching the clock for a deadend job. This has gotta be the best decision I’ve made in a decade or more.
Also, you may want to start small. Try making a knives out of old files first to understand the finishing process. See youtube. A foundry is a huge jump.
PondartIncbendog
Level 8
Aug 29, 2019
1
I’ve done a bit of it - my degree is in industrial arts - I also took a workshop with a smith in Assisi, Italy. The man was amazing - his family had been the iron workers there for a few hundred years. Some great history there.
Haemish1
Level 8
Aug 29, 2019
1
Did I give him any bad information?
@PondartIncbendog
I think you gave him much more detailed and accurate information than I could have.
I’m much more of a wood butcher than an iron monger.
I have been making knives for years. Start small. EXCEPT your anvil.
Here is the rule. For a five pound hammer, you need a fifty pound anvil.
For a ten pound, you need a hundred pound. A good anvil is ten dollars a pound.
IF you can find a portion of railroad track, you have an anvil. Great quality steel.
If you drop a ball bearing on a good anvil, it will ring and have a good bounce.
Harbor Freights anvils are crap. Some of them have been cut apart to find filler.
Try craig's list for used anvils.
PondartIncbendog
Level 8
Aug 29, 2019
2
Thanks, good advice. I might have to look for some railroad track. There’s plenty of defunct machinery at my farm. I might be able to find a very similar beam of steel from something there too, but getting it cut off of whatever it’s apart of will be much harder.
@Wurlitzer That means its good steel. There is a guy on youtube that makes a beautiful anvil out of a piece of track. Once you are done and you make a nice one, they are worth a lot of money. See Ebay.
@Wurlitzer There is another idiot on youtube who welded a piece of steel on top of a crappy anvil. That leaves a cavity between the steel and the orig anvil. Worthless.
@Wurlitzer The purpose of the anvil is so the top and bottom of the piece get almost the same impact. That can only be done if the energy goes through the piece, down the anvil and back up to the bottom of the piece.
@Wurlitzer Old wrenches also make great knives. Great steel. Don't use a wench. There is a difference.
@PondartIncbendog wow yeah ya really get what ya pay for, thanks for saving me the 15 bucks lol. What’s the smallest/cheapest commercially available anvil you think I could get away with? Probably just going to be using an average Ball-peen hammer to start with, so not that heavy, maybe 3-5lb. The one that guy recommended is 265 bucks, way out of my price range right now, having been laid off this summer. Might have to rely on the railroad track or salvage some farm steel if I can find a good piece.
@Wurlitzer I don't know. I was lucky. I asked a few friends and one of their dads had a chunk of RR track. I would keep watching CR and asking friends. You can get a piece on Ebay or CR. I found some for fourty bucks. [seattle.craigslist.org]
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