Any one else a Blacksmith here?

[Baby Giraffe]

Ya ya. I'm a Blacksmith, ground level novice though, and I was wondering if anyone else was one here.

I made my own forge from a little 70 AMP stick welder I got at walmart and scrap from the local junk yard.
Forge: http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb103/loyal_dragon_apostle/blacksmithjunk001.jpg
Welder: http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb103/loyal_dragon_apostle/blacksmithjunk001-1.jpg (I have an auto darkening helmet now :3 )

I have a crappy anvil, it's cast iron and really soft, techincally it's an ASO (anvil shaped object) But it's still a hunk of metal to powned on. it's about 50 or 70 pounds and cost me 75 bux.
Anvil with smaller anvil ontop: http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb103/loyal_dragon_apostle/blacksmithjunk001-2.jpg

Box o hammers, tongs, and stuff: http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb103/loyal_dragon_apostle/blacksmithjunk007.jpg

I use an old electrolux vacuum for a blower: http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb103/loyal_dragon_apostle/blacksmithjunk005.jpg

It's fun and all that. I don't have any newer pics of it put to gether fully or fired up but it works and it melts a RR spike REALLY fast >

 

[Monak]

Thats a pretty sweet rig , did you research a design or just completely Macgyver it?

 

[Baby Giraffe]

I looked at alot of forges but there were alot of angle iron beds at the dump so I took those, two storm doors I used to make the table and that huge truck brake drum disk. I had the frame made before I found the storm doors or the brake drum so you could say I Macgvered it :3

 

[ToeClaws]

Oh wow, very cool. Are you working up to making blades or is it going to be more for iron work? Not a blacksmith myself - one of many skills I'd love to learn one day.

 

[Baby Giraffe]

Blade smithing is a skill that I do want to learn but i am REALLY far from it I can botch a really poor sharp piece of iron now but thats about it XD.

 

[Ride_the_Lightning]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's all nice and sweet... NOW WHERE'S MY WARHAMMER!?!

 

[ToeClaws]

Still, very cool to try and learn it. Bladesmithing is definitely a refined art, but a rewarding one if you get really good at it. I have an Irish broadsword with tapered point that was made by a blacksmith who had incredible bladesmithing skills - he was so good at it that between jobs, he just made more blades to support himself and did really well. The only oddity is that he actually didn't like bladesmithing as anything but a hobbie, heh.

 

[Baby Giraffe]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's all nice and sweet... NOW WHERE'S MY WARHAMMER!?!

I have an 8 lb sledge hammer, does that work? =/

@Toe: I'd like a hand forged blade, but those buggers are expencive.

 

[Ride_the_Lightning]

I have an 8 lb sledge hammer, does that work? =/

No-no! It has to be a WARHAMMER! I wanna be a barbarian, not a construction worker!

 

[net-cat]

I've done some metal work. Not since highschool, though. What little I did I rather enjoyed.

(As for now, I really think my landlord would take issue with it. I can't imagine that they're terribly happy with what I'm doing to my air conditioner now...)

 

[Jack]

I am not a professional. but I make my own weapons from time to time.

 

[Baby Giraffe]

Really? Like what?

 

[hillbilly guy]

i do a bit of it but my brouther is the blacksmith of the family he makes anything from tools to swords, the most i can make is knife blanks but im still working on how to temper them. but i built my own forge and i built my brouthers to

 

[Mikael Grizzly]

I like to hit people on the heads with a big hammer, does that count?

 

[SparkOfMortality]

I love the fact that even after 1000 years, with all of our new technology, blacksmithing is STILL the only way to make real weapons (excluding, y'know guns). Even with all of that ultra atomic scale reference stuff and our uber high quality carbon steel and cumputer controlled laser cutters and junk, the result always turns out short. If you want a weapon balanced, sturdy, and capable, you have to have it handmande, no other way to do it. And I think that is awesome.

Take for example, the collection of swords this one museum in asia has, all from the late middle ages. People got permission, handled them, found they were astonishingly well built and finely crafted and did their sciency thing, made perfect replicas of them that have the same dimensions and look the same but they just can't compete.

I have no idea what I would ever do with such things though. They wouldn't even be allowed to leave my house and the moneymaking aspect wont stack up to a job here (not many people here are interested in anything more than three weeks old) but it would be a great hobby. I myslef prefer more intricate crafting hobbies, involving more manual dexterity and precision and with results usually for show (I love making cool looking things!) but I can see how this would be really appealing to someone.

Theres actually a store in one of our malls that makes most of it's money selling utility knives and axes and such, but a few guys there make their own weapons and sell them off, making a tidy little sum off a backroom medieval weapons shop.

 

[cassandrarising]

*drools* Nope, sadly my back won't allow me to do any forge work. It looks like so much fun. I've done carving on swords that others have forged tho.

 

[Nargle]

I love the fact that even after 1000 years, with all of our new technology, blacksmithing is STILL the only way to make real weapons (excluding, y'know guns). Even with all of that ultra atomic scale reference stuff and our uber high quality carbon steel and cumputer controlled laser cutters and junk, the result always turns out short. If you want a weapon balanced, sturdy, and capable, you have to have it handmande, no other way to do it. And I think that is awesome.

That's EXACTLY how it is with string instruments =D The manufactured ones are for beginners, and sound crappy, yet the hand crafted ones are just plain heavenly @.@

To the OP- Have you made anything yet? You should post pictures of more then just your equipment =D

 

[pheonix]

being a blacksmith in RL must be hard but awesome at the same time.

 

[ToeClaws]

@Toe: I'd like a hand forged blade, but those buggers are expencive.

Yes, they are, even when mass produced (or as close to mass produced as hand-forged stuff gets). But if YOU were the one that had to shape it and fold it over and over, dozens or hundreds of times, you'd not be selling it for a $100 either! As with most things, you get what you pay for. Hand-forged blades by a skilled blacksmith can command huge money, and if you get good enough at it, your stuff begins to sell itself as fast as you can make it.

There was one long dagger sold where I got my sword (made by a different guy than the one that made my sword) that was done in Damascus steel folding style. It was gorgeous, and just perfect. It won several best-of-shows in blacksmithing and bladesmithing competitions, and was selling for $2000.

It might take some work, but if you could get to learning that art, it can be very rewarding.

 

[Baby Giraffe]

@Toe: Oh I Kno. I know what it's like to forge just for fun and it's not easy, nor do I ever walk out without some type of burn XD It's more of an art today than a standard of living that it used to be =/ I'm many MANY years from any desent sword smithing but it isn't hard to make a sharp hunk of steel anyways 8D

 

[hillbilly guy]

i can shape steel into a sword and i dont burn the steel any more but does any one know how to temper if you do tell me cause right now the best i can do is dunk the steel into some old motor oil

 

[Baby Giraffe]

Lindsay technical books has many good blacksmithing books. I got all mine from them. Tempering. Straw yellow: Hard and brittle Blue: soft and springy. Just slowly heat the iron.

 

[hillbilly guy]

thanks
il check out the books