@@EmpressOfExile206 here in Germany, we usually don't have a back yard, and even in America (aka the most common place referred to on the Internet), the usual thing in the backyard isn't a pizza oven. So a backyard brick pizza oven isn't what comes to mind.
here in my place where blacksmithing is common, we use cinder blocks and leaf blower to build a forge and fuel it with coconut shell cuz it barely produce ashes not as good as propane but good enough to make the blacksmithing industry thrive because of cheap investment
I seen a primitive guy use a really nice rock and make a blower. I did my share of it for a while. It was a great learning experience and sold everything I had for a nice, very nice profit. I also made several dozen tongs which is why I made a very large profit. Toungs are a great start which gives you most of the basic skills. Once you can make a set of tongs you can BS your way in to making anything.
this short brought me to your channel and i'm already subscribed, so i can come back and look at your longer videos, once i finish what i was doing. thanks for this.
unless your smith is in the military active or reserve component. Met a couple in the reserve, and yeah can't have a beard then but they make great smiths. They also tend to host the biggest beards post military hahaha.
@@jmoneyjoshkinion4576 it doesn't take much space. unless you literally do not have a yard you should be ok. If you don't have a yard it isn't hard to make a mobile forging station and just carry it to any undeveloped piece of land. You can literally make a tiny forge with a piece of carbide fire brick you cut in half and use long bolts to tighten it down on itself, and get a handheld propane torch and it will insulate well enough to get stuff hot enough to work. Grab a small log and a decent piece of steel and bolt it to the log and you have an anvil. grab a hammer. all 3 items are easily movable, and store in minimal space once cool. Biggest challenge is taking it home after work as it isn't safe for sedan trunks or SUV trunks, but a truck bed or small trailer will work fine, or you can just loosen up the bolts to open the bricks to air and let them cool off over 20-30 minutes while playing on your phone, tighten it back up and your good to go. Source: some of my earliest craft escapades happened when me and my wife were newlyweds living in a 600 sq ft apartment and the complex had rules against crafts and projects so i had to get creative.
I’ve been cold forging on an old vice that has a flat part with a claw hammer. I’ll only start hot gorging when I have an anvil and coal, I’ll use an old grill as my forge body.
also optional, I have no beard and soft hands and still make all manner of handy little things, whatever I need (lot of very specific tools I'll probably only use once tbh) still never made a nail tho
Alabama here. Got a peice of track from my pawpaw last weekend he said he’s had it longer than his big blacksmith anvil like the one you got on the stump. Anyway it’s off an old track from Lawrenceburg Tennessee. It’s wore down on top from the train. Badass I would never get rid of it. About a foot and a half. Heavy as heck though. Alright love videos. Robots lol
I got all this stuff, but I also got scrap wood and needed an image of how to secure my anvil... Just a Jewler's but I am hammering silver so... gonna be coin or straw sized metal
I like my rail chunks. I hired a guy to do some yard work and he spied them one day and asked what they were. I tried to explain it to him, but I'm not quite sure he understood. I say that because he thought he could move them with ease like I did. They range from 12 to 24 inches long, but some are taller and others are wider. Some flat, some rounded. They each have their purpose. Just don't underestimate something being small for being lightweight. I make it look easy because I'm used to handling them. After using them for all these years, I can't help but laugh when I see someone in the movies pick up a big brick of Gold and toss it like it was nothing. Trust me, bricks that size are NOT light at all. It'll give you a hernia, though. lol
As a smith that started out on those Horrible Fright (Harbor Freight) anvils, I can definitely say that you CAN forge on one, but you'd be much better off with a sledge head or something that's actually hard steel! You'd probably get similar, if not better results from a big rock than one of those blue paper weights
Bear In mind with cast anvils (like harbor freight ones) they will dent with errant blows and you'll need to maintain the face, the horn will also be damaged if you're off on your strikes. Take it slow. Make sure you get an accurate hit. Speed will come with time. Look up Alec Steele's video on making leaves and follow his instructions for some goof practice
Ride on man I prefer a good old charcoal Forge myself set from that point you got the forge,an anvil and Hammer you can make the rest of the tools you will ever need cuz that's the most amazing thing about blacksmithing
I made a mound of dirt with some 3" storm water pipe running from the side straight out the top and put the top of an old keg on top that my fil used to use as a fire pit. An old clapped out leafblower went in the other end of the pipe and it worked pretty well. Just concentrated the airflow too much to the center but it got me started.
Seeing the costs of many knives i have gotten into the idea of making my own (forged in fire isnt helping) im surprised to see its way cheaper to start than i honestly expected just going to the route of hand tools. Time to finish my winter woodworking projects and build myself a forge once spring breaks
The only use I've found for a large working surface has been in flattening longer pieces. For something that isn't going to take a huge beating, a 1 inch thick plate burnt into a stump works pretty well.
a windy day with a regular fire that has wind directed into a funnel "works", I have shown it multiple times. then anvil, I have used a rock (it will crumble, but hey, easy to replace). for hammer I have used another rock. true, no fine delicate things can be made, but making a slitting chissel and a drift was possible to then make a cross peen hammer from a piece of steel, even mild steel will work for a while, yes it will take damage, but that can be filed away, that then used to make better tools...
Yeah. Almost forgot to mention about having one of those Heatproof hands, to grab and hold pieces of metal straight from a furnace, with a temperature over 500°c
This is how I made my first spear. Me my uncle and my cousin a wood fire in a pit some bricks that needed to be frequently replaced and whatever ball peen peice of Garbo we found in my dads garage and they weren’t pretty but they definitely looked like spears and definitely enough to make me and my cousin happy😂😂
Forgot to mention the barrel chest, arms like a monster, and a beard longer than your lifespan after 20 years inhaling the fumes from the dwarven village forge.
i started smithing with 2 map gas torches, and an old broken rusty vise i found in my backyard😂 unless you count the countless melted plastic spoons and the stick i would use while camping as a kid😂
Harbor Freight recently stepped up their anvil game. The blue cast iron ones are getting tough to find in my area, but now they’re carrying cast steel ones made by Doyle.
Blacksmithing is a very old art, started way back in ancient times. If bronze age people could do it with a hammer, and a stone stove, you should be able to do it too. Heck, when they first started, their hammers were made of stone until they could make ones made out of metal.
I would stick with a railroad tie before I use a harbor freight in anvil. They work but after buying a vice from harbor freight and it breaking on me when I was beating on it, no thank you. For all you starting blacksmiths out there I would highly recommend getting a leg vise.
Sledge hammer heads in antique/thrift shops go for 5 to 25 bucks, same at garage sales. Forges can be made with a steel tube or brick tunnel, leaf blower or hair dryer (larger ones work better than fast ones), and some scrap pallets in a hole. No more than 50 if you spend alot to get them. 8 generic red bricks cost 16 or so, at most, and the blowers cost 15 to 50 depending on what you choose to buy, and used ones can be even cheaper (same places as the sledge hammer head). Scrap wood can be found at processing plants and factories all over, such as lumber milling scrap, shipping facilities, factories and farms often have scrp pallets you can take for free just to get it off their land, and now all you need to do is find scrap iron. Also easy.
@Wolvenworks prices will vary depending somewhat on currency, but mostly based availability. I can assure you most industrialized nations will have VERY affordable options for the roles a blacksmiths tools must fill. Example: bricks can be replaced with river rock except for the ones directly against the fire, and technically the whole thing can be a dirt tunnel if you practice a bit. Essentially, if you can afford a hammer you shouldn't have a hard time getting the basic equipment needed.
@@kyleheins yes i suppose i could build the forge at half the price since i’m in indonesia…but i still don’t have a place for it, and i doubt i can just stick one on my backyard in the middle of a residential area in the city. Not to mention, I have no idea how to forge! Nearest blacksmith is in Buttfuck Nowhere, Central Java. I’d have to go abroad to learn the skill, and that costs money. In dollars, because Australia or Singapore uses dollars. So yeah, I’m currently not in a good position to start learning how to bang some metal. All i can do i watch other ppl have fun in this case.
I literally have that blue fuckin anvil 😂. The downside is, cheap anvils are cast iron. If you’re working with steel, the face will deform and start leaving marks in your material, or bending it from the non level surface. Good for starting out though
I've seen induction heaters getting cheaper and more readily available (usually sold for mechanics to efficiently heat a stuck faster without putting too much heat into the surrounding metal) have you ever tried those as a substitute for a small forge?
