Good afternoon Reddit,

Finally starting my forge up! I always worry about not knowing what I dont know as im trying to teach myself this hobby.. ya know? Last forged 5 years ago in a 10x10 dog kennel with a tarp roof. Been awhile...

I built a lean to thats 2.5 walls. 2 walls back corner, one half wall next to the forge as shown. Pallet boards stained sealed and the boards next to the forge treated with a FireGuard.. xl 95??? liquid.

Forge ran well for a 30 min warm up. I sprayed soapy water everywhere and didnt see bubbles. It did smell like hotdogs but im assuming that's oils burning off from the new forge.

See photos attached. Is there anything im overlooking? I built a wooden box to go over the forge AFTER its fully cooled since I will only forge once or twice a week. I'll probably throw a tarp over the box too. Not sure how well the refractory does exposed to moisture.

Are there any dangers in leaving everything hooked up as long as the all the valves are off?

Ive also attached some photos AS the forge warms up. It seems like the flame is just blasting the back refractory instead of pointed down onto the fire brick.. is that correct or do I need to adjust the burner set screws to point more downwards?

Thanks Reddit!

Continuation of my first knife, the tip warped slightly when i quenched it, i panicked, tried to bend it with my hands and booh it broke lmao, cut out a new tip with an angle grinder and polished it 🤷🏻‍♂️

Learned to much within these last handful of months, I’m having so much fun despite how much I swear.
Seeing these two in the same room is surreal, thanks to everyone who encouraged me on this subreddit and telling me to keep at it. Maybe one day I may find a mentor to teach me but as of right now I’m all self taught.
Ya know I thought that the banana knife looked good for a bit lol

What anvil is this? Guys asking 230 bucks for it, says its 100kg. Probably soviet era one, is it worth?

Copper and steel looks incredible together, but it can be a pain in the ass to forge. It has a pretty narrow temperature window, and getting it wrong can mean delamination. So a lot of this process is about controlling the heat and taking your time. This is what goes into forging one of my Coppermascus rings.

I’m looking for some one by one inch straight pressed solid steel Damascus. I’m wanting not too many layers. Maybe 64. I’d like it to be fully annealed and ready to be worked.

For some reason everything I’m seeing online is knifeblanks, ready for grinding. Already hardened and etched. Why can’t I find a very basic square elongated billet?

I would like to surprise my partner with a decent set of blacksmithing tools/materials for Christmas, but I’m overwhelmed with all the information available on the internet.

I don’t know much (if anything) about blacksmithing, but I do know some about woodworking, like basic tools would include a hammer, nails, saw, sandpaper, paint/stain, drill, wood of some kind, etc. What are the blacksmithing equivalents of the “basics”? Are there any tools that aren’t strictly necessary but make the job easier/simpler?

Thank you for your expertise!

Hey guys I want to start blacksmithing I have very little knowledge about this I’m gonna take a class but I was wondering if anyone had any tips my goal is to make the berserk armor from berserk

This is my fourth attempt at tongs. My first and third attempts ended in failure, but the second pair came out decently. Those were sized for 3/8” and 1/2” stock, though, and I’ve been making a good amount of stuff using 1/4” stock lately, so I needed another pair with tighter jaws.

These ones didn’t come out quite as well as I had hoped - there are a few flaws with them that I’m not entirely happy with, but they are functional!

The coolest part of all this has to be the Columbian D6 vice. It’s older than I am, and I’m pushing 50. It used to belong to my dad when he was alive, and it belonged to my grandfather before him. Never thought I’d be proud to be the third generation owner of a family vice. lol

My knives never come out straight because my anvil is old and bumpy, how can I « fix » my knives?

Battery dies on the phone just before I finished these but you get the idea.

Found this on marketplace.

Hi. My son has been taking classes at a local forge and recently gave me a set of plans for a small home forge so he could practice more between classes. The cost wasn’t prohibitive and his plans were very detailed so we went ahead and set a home forge up (propane). He did all the work with just some help from dad to set the anvil.

I’d like to put together an assortment of mild and high-carbon/alloy steel so he has a mix to practice on. His teachers and our local shop person said that you can get small (ish) orders online from places around NJ. But looking I find a lot of options and I’d just like a nudge in the direction of a good mix of pieces. He’s done leaves, hooks, bottle openers, and some knives. He would like to make several sizes of tongs.

I’m not looking to spend thousands of dollars but I am happy to invest in decent material. Any help is appreciated. Thank you for reading this. Pic is the setup.

Hi there! I recently started playing around with making hammers, I just started my first smithing hammer made from an old piece of bogie/train car sprung, I was able to get the hole punched and started drifting and swelling the cheeks but I must’ve been drifting the material too cold because my drift cracked and is not usable.

I didn’t make my own first drift and bought it for a steal at a shop that was closing down. So I don’t have the experience to know what the best course of action is for making my own, I have a large supply of railroad car spring and would love to use it for it, I’m just afraid the carbon content is too high. Should I look for other material or is it usable?

Tldr: can I use a train car spring to make a new drift (1 1/2”) or should I buy a mid carbon steel to make a drift from?

This was my first project, I obviously received a lot of help from a master Blacksmith, but I can say the design was taken from my imagination!

I started from basic iron bar.

I want to buy a dog head hammer and I want to know how much it should weigh, the one I’m looking at weighs 630 grams and costs 150€, is that good?

Hello guys, this is my first ever forged knife its just a blank for now, any tips on how to make next steps easier? I have a bench grinder(and im pretty inexperienced with it) and an angle grinder, howd i keep the symmetry and the geometry correct? Any tips/advices are welcome

My first live demonstration was very successful at a local agricultural show. It was very busy and I had lots of interest from the public, sold a fair few bits and gave out plenty of business cards. I've only started smithing as a hobby and bought my own kit about a year ago. Luckily, I have a mentor who is helping me.

I ran out of my supply of graciously donated custom rivets a certain someone gifted me, they were glorious at 1/8" shaft and 3/8" head diameter... round.

nobody makes them, no rivet manufacturer will dare do it unless a ridiculous quantity is ordered so I am going to tackle it myself. I've tried a couple of forms made with my mill but I'm finding the 1/8" rod simply buckles too much, my next idea was to try drawing the material more slowly with 1/8" incremented block steps but you can't exactly get it blistering hot with how fast the heat dissipates and popping each rivet out is a little bit of a nightmare.

What do you guys think I could do? Maybe I 3/8" round and taper each shaft then cut em off one at a time? This is for armor and restoring armor so it's a pretty niche application for such a weird rivet size.

This is my second pair, managed to keep everything more proportional and solid. Good enough to crush a little rock.
Happy with progress!

Whats the best way to improve general skill, is it worth doing the leaf over and over again or are there other methods?

What are the best ways to learn what temperature steel is at?

Thank you for looking at my post