As some of you know, I have been dabbling with knife making the last year or so, with some mild success (meaning one quality knife out of 5). I decided that while that is fun, stock removal is, well, limiting. So I have decided I wanted to try forging using a forge and an anvil. As you may not know, anvils have skyrocketed in price ever since the show Forged in Fire came on the air (or cable, I guess), so it would be insane to buy an anvil only to find out you actually hate it. After much wandering on the internet, I came across an idea that seemed to be right up my alley, and I had all of the materials I needed on hand at the house for zero out of pocket cost. Bonus! I have made a very temporary post anvil out of a 6x6 piece of lumber and two pieces of 1/4" angle iron and some bolts. I sunk it in a bucket of concrete. EDIT: Pause while i try to get the stupid picture to post.
Using my old charcoal forge, my youngest son and I completed our first "project" (basically flattening and bending a piece of rebar): Anyone else here blacksmith/knife make/play with really hot fire and bend shit? The anvil, of course, is very temporary, but it should be enough to either whet my appetite or tell me "Nope, Alan, not for you." Thanks for the indulgence. EDIT: Oh, and I told the son that last night it was fine because we were only around the forge for a few minutes, but in the future, no synthetic clothes. Synthetics + fire == bad day.
Track is kind of hard to come by these days. I am going to go by the local scrap yard and look for a large chunk of steel (drop of 75+ pounds with a flat surface on it) and use that if I can. Tenny, do you black smith? Here is a great channel if you like to watch artists make stuff. This guy is fantastic. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSFaYYQzNMLo2U6rSNLpghg
Also, why don't you jacklegs ask for something in my skill range, like a hook or a flat piece of rebar?
You’re like 9 feet tall, probably don’t have a beard, and don’t drink beer. How you gonna roll blacksmithing?