Making a forge

[BillinOregon]

Desert Rat:
I can't recommend Tim Lively's video highly enough. You can get it at http://www.livelyknives.com/.
I have a washtub forge I power with an old hand-cranked Champion blower and charcoal from burn piles, etc. It's far more forgiving and "tribal" than coal. There's some great bladesmithing that goes on in your neck of the woods. Do a search for Tai Goo.

 

[Charles D. Prokopp]

Tai's a friend of mine, and is a great source of information. Check out the Neotribal Metalsmiths website.
For fire bricks, kaowool and other refractories, contact Marjon Ceramic supply here in Tucson. They have a web site.
Try to find a book entitled "The Fifty-dollar Knife Shop".
Oh, yeah...have fun!

 

[bingo1952]

A piece of railroad iron will also do in a pinch. :wink:

 

[longcruise]

A piece of railroad iron will also do in a pinch

How much of that can I cut out without derailing the train?

 

[bingo1952]

Not Much :rotf: Seriously though it does make a decent anvil. You can check with salvage yards, they sometimes get it in. :thumbsup:

 

[Deadeye]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v117/8225hy/Anvil.jp
LC, re the anvil, I made this one about 25 yrs. ago wieghts about 135 lbs. Took some 4" scrap stock and cut it out with a torch, ground the horn
round with a sander, welded a 1"thick piece of cat blade on top and two 1" flat pieces on the bottom. Didn't put any holes in it but it works well for most of the stuff I do. Grinding the horn was the most work.

 

[Birdman]

Deadeye all I'm getten from the link is "Page Not Found" am I doing something wrong or didn't it take?

 

[ameling]

A very good piece of "scrounged" steel for making an anvil is a Forklift tine. It's wide, thick, long, and already flat. You have a lot of mass there. The hard part is figuring out how to attach it to your stand. The rest is cutting, grinding, and welding.

An anvil is just a heavy flat surface to pound on. As someone else already mentioned, I have also done smaller work using a large sledgehammer head. A little "tinkering" can turn it into a pretty usefull small/portable anvil. Look for an older style sledgehammer - with square shape instead of 8 sided faces.

A horn is not that necessary. You do have to be more creative to work without one, but it can be done. And you can always make up a cone "bickiron" to use in place of a horn.

My main caution to you is ---- blacksmithing is ADDICTIVE! You have been warned.

Mikey - yee ol' grumpy German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

 

[paulvallandigham]

I agree about the horn. My father would draft a scrap piece of plumbing pipe, from anywhere between 1/2" to 3" and clamp it in his bench vise, to use to bend metal, heated, or cold, into a desired shape. This can also be a job for solid steel rods of various sizes, which can be " scrounged " at junk yards, or other projects. I have not seen a square headed sledge hammer in years, but if the face of the hammer is still flat, and hardened, it makes a good surface to hammer small projects on.

The essense of blacksmithing is " making do ", with what you have. Smiths made their own tools, either as apprentices to master smiths, or on their own. They also are great at designing and making jigs to form steel into various shapes. Over a lifetime, they will acquire dozens of tools made for specific projects. Its knowing what to use when that makes that smith a master.

 

[Tinker2]

Deadeye's img

"http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v117/8225hy/Anvil.jp
LC, re the anvil, I made this one about 25 yrs. ago wieghts about 135 lbs. Took some 4" scrap stock and cut it out with a torch, ground the horn
round with a sander, welded a 1"thick piece of cat blade on top and two 1" flat pieces on the bottom. Didn't put any holes in it but it works well for most of the stuff I do. Grinding the horn was the most work."

Tinker2

 

[bwhoffman]

Deadeye all I'm getten from the link is "Page Not Found" am I doing something wrong or didn't it take?

link was missing the "g" on the file type,

here it is corrected for you! http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v117/8225hy/Anvil.jpg

 

[Blacksmith]

http://www.az-blacksmiths.org/

I haven't seen this posted yet so will put it here. I know a fella from Glendale that is a farrier and makes a few knives that probobly belongs to this group. Would guess that the group might be good place to hook up locally ( state ) for equipment.

 

[Birdman]

thanks Brett, got it now :thumbsup: , nice piece of work. :hatsoff:  Now to listen when his wife starts complaining that he never comes in the house :yakyak:  and his cloths stink  haw haw haw oh yea n the little burn marks on them LOL. Ya wonder why our wives put up with us sometimes with all our strange hobbies :shocked2:

 

[Deadeye]

Tinker, Thanks for getting my pic to post.
The piece of Caterpillar blade welded to the top
is about as tough a piece of steel as you can find.

 

[Tinker2]

Deadeye

Nice looking anvil. Good job.


Anvil made from Railroad rail.

I have three pieces that I use for small projects and the like.
One has a horn and hardy hole cut into/on it.

Handy to have, easy to find, doesn’t replace a good anvil.
Does fit on my desk though.


Tinker2

 

[Charles D. Prokopp]

I know one fellow who employed railroad track for an anvil in an interesting manner. He realised that most knife makers and hobbyist smiths only worked on a small section of hot steel at a time, ergo: they did not need to use the whole long face of an anvil. So he set about 2' of track vertically in a tub of cement. He ground a radius on the web between the base and the bearing surface of the rail to serve as a swage. The end rail and the base were ground smooth and serve as his bashing surfaces. So he has working surfaces that are slightly larger than the area being forged, and those small surfaces have the entire weight of the track behind them. It works.

 

[44-henry]

Hit some garage sales, you'll find all sorts of stuff at great prices, much of which you don't really need. I've found several anvils at garage sales in the past few years.

The last one I bought weighed over 100 pounds and came with lots of hardies and some other accessories that you don't often find with them, it cost $50, but the face and horn are near mint condition. Stuff like this doens't have to be expensive, you just need to hunt for it.