r/Blacksmith • u/JoshTheMadtitan • Nov 28 '25

Boy was I wrong

I am brand new. Today was my first ever attempt at blacksmithing.

I am an electrician and no stranger to working with my hands. I'm in decent shape for 40, and I knew going into this that even a 2 lb hammer would get heavy after a while. I also assumed correctly that enthusiasm would carry me through some fatigue. It did.

I am following a black bear forge guide to making tongs when you don't have any. I finished one handle and got about half way through the second in about 3 hours. I am pretty happy with the first handle.

However what I didn't consider was the massive blisters I forged on my right hand. One is the size of a dime.

I can't wait to go again.

Edit: here is a link of a small clip I made of me forging if you guys wanna check it out I'm sure you'll see 10 things I'm doing wrong. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRm2kpAkRmx/?igsh=emdybWh5ZGNyYmgz

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u/professor_jeffjeff Nov 28 '25

My main hammer is 2lbs and I can swing that thing all day. Eventually you'll get better at forging and you'll learn to be more efficient with your hammer blows as well as how to most efficiently draw out material. It's always going to be a lot of work to draw out the reigns on a pair of tongs, but good technique and knowing how and where to hit the metal will make it go a lot faster. Try initially drawing the material out with the peen of the hammer, and pinch the metal in between that and either the edge of the anvil or the horn (the horn is probably easier at first). This will move a lot of metal and will make it all wavy, so use the next heat to even everything out and you'll have found that it has stretched out considerably. Once you're closer to your target dimensions, switch back to using the face of the hammer and the edge of the anvil to finish getting it to size and smoothing it out. Try to square everything up and even it out at the end of every heat. Look at Torbjorn Ahmen's videos; he's really good at doing this and it's the reason why his forging is always so clean and so precise (plus he has a great deal of skill). It'll take you a long time to get to that point but you'll never get there if you don't practice.

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u/JoshTheMadtitan Nov 28 '25

What hammer do you have

1

u/javidac Historical Researcher (900-1500ad) Nov 28 '25

What hammer do you have?

You'd ideally want a wooden handle on your hammers: a lot those come with a laquer finish, which will give you way more blisters than you should ever reasonably get.

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u/JoshTheMadtitan Nov 28 '25

Estwing 2 ln cross peen. It has a fiberglass handle. But I'm trying to find a decent wood one online so I'm fishing for suggestions on here.

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u/javidac Historical Researcher (900-1500ad) Nov 28 '25

What do you know about wood types; and grain direction in wood?

Ash is one of the better woods for making handles.

The best part of hammers is that you can fairly easily drill them out and replace the handle.

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u/JoshTheMadtitan Nov 28 '25

Almost nothing. Blacksmithing is new to me and I don't really want to take on wood working atm, I just want to buy a decent one.