your perception and observation is correct. they are also lying on my driveway. i generally kick them out of the way, as there is usually more lying around. i set up and put away every time i forge, sometimes.
the anvil has lived outside a time or two over the last 15 years. it used to pe painted red in an effort to keep the rust off, but rust never sleeps.
my hammers and tongs reside in a milk crate, and i occasionally leave them out side, or they may spend a year or two in non temperature controlled condtions. i tossed the steel rack as it added excessive weight to my 3000lb pile of tools and related items.
my forge is baked mud with a scrap pipe tweer, plugged with a piece of branch, in a rusted out wheel barrow at this time. i will abandon it behind the shed in the back yard next time i move, after i remove the tweer pipe. it lives outside beside the neighbours house when his firewood pile hides it from my wifes and his view.
the blower is a 100 year old champion that sat in my mothers flower bed for no less than 35 years. it is rusty too. i squirt used motor oil into the gearbox to keep the noise down.
i move approximately once every 3-4 years, and it can be from one end of Canada to the other. i travel light for a blacksmith. when i stop being a rolling stone, i might scrub the rust off my tools, but probably not. i`ll probably make a rack to keep them off the floor, but only because my back starts to hurt after bending down and picking them up.
i like the tomahawks and knives that these seemingly neglected tools enable me to make.
that last one is really pretty, and throws really well.
there is no rust, anywhere, on any one of my guns, from the muzzle loaders to the Lee Enfields, the .22 and shotguns to my SKSs.
