[TheForge] Starting up

[John Husvar]

On Jan 5, 2006, at 2:56 PM, Jerry Frost wrote:

> Welcome aboard Andrei:
>
> There's been plenty of good advice, some better than others.

And none of it so far really bad at all. :)

Here's my 2 cents. (or the equivalent minor sum in Romania)

>
> A coal or charcoal forge is extremely easy to make and can be as  
> simple as a shallow hole scooped in the dirt with a piece of pipe  
> for the air blast. A small washtub lined with clay works really  
> well. You'll need a deeper fire for charcoal than coal but this is  
> a small detail.

Any old heat source will do in an emergency: Having no way to heat  
and beat iron is an emergency. I know one man who started by heating  
small pieces of steel on his electric stove burners. What he used for  
an anvil I don't know, but he made some exquisite small pieces.

>
> 2) Something to beat against. An anvil is preferable but almost  
> anything heavy and hard enough can serve. Probably the most common  
> improvised anvil is a length of rail road rail. My best ever  
> improvised anvil was a large axel of some sort buried with the  
> wheel flange up at a good working height. In a pinch a boulder will  
> serve.

Literally any piece of flat, hard, heavy material will do; a block of  
steel, a well supported granite slab, a big rock, a hunk of lead.  
(OK, _not_ the lead.:)

The main thing is: Don't wait to start until you have all the right  
tools. The only way you'll ever have _all_ the right tools is to make  
your own -- and you'll find yourself doing that more often than  
you'll ever think.

The most important tools are between your ears and at the end of your  
arms. Once you get a piece of material moving, you will progress.  
Then you will get addicted. Then you can begin to make a small  
fortune, but only if you start with a large one. :)

Don't expect perfection at the beginning. Don't even expect good. If  
you don't ruin quite a few attempts at projects, you're not playing  
enough. There's not one of us on this list who does not have a fairly  
large I-won't-try-that-that-way-again pile somewhere around the shop.  
Some of the contents get reused on other projects, some go to the  
dump, and some you fix and end up doing them right after all.

If I had a dollar for every time I've thrown down the hammer and quit  
smithing, I'd have that large fortune, by the way.

One of the better smithing lessons is to get yourself into trouble  
and have to figure your way out of it. I still do it often. Expertise  
isn't never making mistakes: It's learning how to fix them before you  
have to start over. _That_ teaches you to mentally work through a  
project before you start hitting the iron.

Hint: Quite often, you must do what you think is the finish work first!

I used to tell one of my students: "I didn't say: Do  it well: I  
said: Do it. Do it  many times. Well will come, probably while you're  
not looking." <OB Zen content for our own Demon Buddha>

Good hammering!