Blacksmith Class

[redidbull]

My Son's fiancé got him 2 seats in a blacksmithing class for his birthday seeing he messes with it a bit. She asked me if I wanted to go with him. No hesitation on my part. We actually were able to take a piece of steel and each made a pretty nice knife. Been around tools my whole life but the sander scared me a bit. This was at a local company owned by the guy that won season 1 episode 1 of Forged in Fire. Here is the link for the show and some pix.The episode with our teacher. https://play.history.com/shows/forged-in-fire/season-1/episode-1 Jim

 

[smallfoot]

Cool! Hope you enjoy it. I've been into blacksmithing for about 50 years although I'm not a professional. Self trained and really put it to use on knife making although some of it gets used on most of my projects. Love the feeling that the tough steels can be beat with heat and hammer...By the way, making most of the tools involved gets you headed in a never ending quest....built my first tongs of several different types,, built the propane powered gas forge I use, also built my own 2x72" belt grinder unfortunately after I retired from knife making(it would have come in handy!)

 

[gene49]

Cool! Blacksmithing is a real art, and can be a great hobby. It takes a few specialty items only used in that trade, but those items often last for years.

Years ago I ran into a guy that did show me how to do it, I had a lot of fun, but it would have been hard to make a living out of it in our area. In my welding shop there were a few times I got the chance to dabble a bit, but those times were pretty far between. I was happy I understood the process and was able to do what was needed, and so was my customer. What I did didn't have anything to do with a cutting edge, more on the forming end. I probably would have failed on the cutting edge tests that show runs the stuff through.

Its probably something I could really get into now, if I still had ambition, but it done left when I retired. I'm not sure how well I would be able to swing that hammer these days.

 

[redidbull]

Swinging the hammer was a tough part. Teacher made it look easy. I was VERY surprised I was not much sorer the next day. Advil at night may have helped. I would rather make hooks and hinges and small stuff, more than knives. Jim

 

[smallfoot]

Ah! hammers....I doubt I have quite as many as Dutch, but I have quite a few. Everything from about an ounce or two up to a big muther 14 pounder. Most of the heavy stuff gets a lot of 3 lb. work. If you do it for years, you'll eventually notice that the size of your swinging arm is larger than the other one...

 

[smallfoot]

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