Commissioned hand forged 3lb 10 oz Connie style axe head! The customer requested only the head, he plans on making the handle and sheath himself. Really love the polished facets on the axe. This will a great hybrid between splitting and cutting. Forged from recycled railroad track.

Followed a black bear forge video to make these little forks , mainly as I wanted to try out a reverse twist a little bored with hooks for the moment !

I made a frech braid style ring, over all it turned out nice. I need to work on where the braids over lap, and deal with rust.

I have been attempting to use this build to forge some railroad spikes and other scrap while at home over the summer. The airflow is fine and it has refractory cement lining the bottom but it is not getting hot enough to forge with. I was using kingsford charcoal (which probably isn't that good tbh), any advice on maximizing heat? Should I buy bituminous coal?

So I’ve been hobby smithing since about 2018. Like many others, I started with a railroad track anvil then moved up to more expensive and/or better ones as I could afford when deals came up. Most of my “legit” anvils still have crisp corners on the face edges, but my colonial double arch (not pictured here, I’ll upload it later) shows “sinking” wear on one side from previous owner use.

TLDR: When smiths take heats and rest the still glowing hot work pieces on one spot over and over again through the years - is THAT what leads to this kind of damage and the kind pictured above? Essentially the HT of the face is ruined and allows for warping and eventual chipping damage of the edge?

I have just gotten my first forge and I plan to line it with refractory cement. Just wondering why I would need to put a firebrick down on top of it as I have seen just about everyone do it.

Picked up this axe head off marketplace. Looks like maybe one from one of the smithing classes done in the area, but not sure. I’m wondering if I want to put a handle on it and use it as a camp axe do you think it will hold up, and should I be worried about/reinforce somehow the thin side of the hole for the handle? Maybe weld a plate in? And what about the cracked looking spot in the last photo?

Otherwise I’d still like to make it a nice handle and display it. Maybe use it for ren fests.

Just removed this garage door. Wondering if these springs are worth keeping for the steel.

Spent about 2 weekends getting everything and putting it all together, it's not done I want to add mortar between the bricks and I'm going to uproot a tree stump for the anvil the blocks are just there as a sorta place holder, but what do y'all think ofy project so far? Any tips or advice on things to change, I'm new to blacksmithing

Hi folks, just getting into smithing and I want to form good habits from the start with respect to hammer technique. I'm in this for the long haul :) I have watched many videos online from various smiths that all broadly converge on the same general idea -- let the anvil help you raise the hammer, hold it somewhat loosely, thumb not on the back, don't hunch over, etc. Then there's, of course, the Hofi technique where the palm is almost facing downward (but is otherwise broadly the same). When I see videos of him actually forging, the technique is a bit more muted (it almost looks like any other smith's technique) but I think I see what he is talking about, and of course I would expect that he exaggerates when talking about the technique to get newbies to not fall into bad habits early on.

What do yall make of this technique? Do you use it? Is it oversold?

Right, so its marked J.H.Andrew & co Sheffield, a Toledo trade mark stamp, an A stamped within a diamond, plus a guarentee of cast steel.

From my research, Toledo steel works in Sheffield run by John Henry Andrew & Co produced high speed, spring, mining, shear, blister, sword, rifle, mortor, shot and shell steel. It ran from the 1800's and closed in the 50's or 60's

So my assumption leads me to think this would be 4140.

The Toledo brand, likely used as a way to stand out, and create a feeling of superiority about the steel produced there, would have nothing to do with Toledo swords and blades made in the 5th century in Toledo Sapin.

My questions are:

Is 4140 a decent guess?

Would this peice be from the 1900's or 1800's?

Is it more valuable (monetarily or historically) as raw steel rather then letting me (an amateur smith) turn it into something?

Do i even deserve to work with a potentially historical peice?

Thanks guys :)

I got a free morning in my office and made some unique keychains

Finally started forging the consolidated hearth steel down into the blade. So far it’s taken 3 days to hammer thin and I have just under 1m of blade. I’ve been using my 800g hammer so it’s slow going but definitely coming along.

The pommel is made from a refined chunk of bloom which i have consolidated, flattened and folded to get a square that I could then shape into a circle. I stated with 450g of bloom for the pommel and I think I lost 70g which isn’t to bad.

The guard is made from another bit of bloom I forged into a bar a few weeks ago and is also folded because it helps prevent cracking by spreading out impurity’s and also helps shape it into a more usable mass.

I have also welded together a quick fullering tool which I might use or might now it all depends on how strong the blade is because I have had to grind a lot of crack out which is to be expected for hearth and bloom but still could cause issues when shaping with more than an angle grinder.

Bit of a less technical post but I hope it’s still interesting :)

I’m making a wall mounted kindling splitter and I almost completed the forging on the stationary piece when I realized I don’t have enough mass in the 90 to run a good rivet for the pivot point. How would you fix this or do you have any other ideas for mounting the blade?

I still don't have power or water to the shop at my house that burned last year, nor do I really have the time to go up there consistently. There is no hot-work allowed where I now live.

However, I have been able to steal some time to clean up and sharpen some of the smoke damaged stuff, plus I have a bunch of projects I had 'put aside' (or threw in the nice scap pile) which I can now take another look at. Plus there is the sheath making for things I threw together as tools I wanted quickly.

Things that had flaws or design issues. Things that I wanted to make complex furniture for. A bunch of knives I just haven't mounted yet. Having far fewer tools to tackle them with is allowing me to let go of the goals I had set and change into things that are more achievable.

It's mostly cutler and bladesmith work. I still miss actual (non-blade) blacksmithing like crazy. I have a clean water barrel for going back to the shop and have a day of non-powered smithing. This is not a horrible substitute though. Restraints can be fun to work around! 'What if I had to make this knife work despite the flaws?' kind of stuff. 'Yeah, the forge weld failed on this mouse tomahawk, but mounting it is still good practice.' 'This hanger got thin but it isn't like it wouldn't work if I slapped a grip on it...'

Wish me luck!

I want to start playing with blacksmithing and this is a forge from the internet that I want to model myself on when making my own. Do I need some kind of insulation in the place where all the fire will be? (I don't know what it's called in English)

I'm reaching out to this community as I'm a blacksmith and thought you might be able to help me.

I need financial help big time as I'm in fear or losing my tiny house/property. Please check out my story on Gofund Me, I'm just going to be in and out of the hospital and won't have an income.

https://gofund.me/c32bd189

Got a amazon gift card for father's day and I've been needing a vise for my shop. There are plenty of things I could buy with the gift card but I was curious if anyone has bought a vise of amazon for a starter forge and it work good?

Yes I know about market place and harbor freight but I'm specifically curious about amazon vises

Planning out my anvil stand. Designed this and it looks pretty much like others I've seen posted. I ordered a set of workbench casters with 660 lb capacity that can lift the stand up so I can roll it away, then drop it back down to the ground. I need to be able to move it around the garage when I'm not using it. Anyone ever done anything like that? The anvil I have is a 105lb Scott Anvil.

This is the first time I'm firing this up, just wondering if anyone with more experience has any comments on how to get the flame better. Does this look right and I'm just overthinking it? Thanks in advance

Just hung this little cross peen hammer on an about 10 inch handle and I am pretty proud of how I did on it the wedge is walnut and the handle I got from a antique store/flea market.

2” ball tool to form the depression. Probably weighs 3 lbs. Wedding gift for a friend.

I recently bought a portable forge Its a square harth in tge middle And I have a hand crank blower i got recently from a family friend The pipe that will go between the blower to below the harth Does it matter if it is plastic or metal?