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Old 10-04-2017, 06:40 AM
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Crex Crex is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Acworth, GA and/or Hanging Dog, NC
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Lot of reasonably good advice here, but really you should do a little more serious study and investigation before proceding. Talking some pretty serious safety issues with having a forge in a small confined space. Good thing is you will probably be expired before the flames get to you so you won't feel anything. Forges require oxygen to work....so do you, guess which one will win that?!
Secondly, if you are serious about producing quality heattreatment results, even with forgable steels, (based on the experience you project in your post) forget about doing it in a gas forge until you have a good bit more experience with just operating the forge and learning reasonably precise temp control. Otherwise you are just adding guess work to guess work on top of inexperience....that seldom produces consistent quality results.
Anvils - hard surface to set work on while it is shaped/moved with a hammer or other tools. Lots of better "hard spots" than the HF 55# chunk of cast iron (it's ok if you want to work copper or other soft thin metal, just not steel or iron). My first anvil was actually half of a reject granite headstone, worked great if you stayed off the corners. RxR coupling knuckle, fork lift tine on end, "drops" large steel cut-offs from a steel yard, yes even RxR track (not a favorite of mine, but works). In short use what you can find or acquire until you can up grade. ABANA has a great thread on how to test used/old anvils for quality of service, not hard once you learn how. You can "blame" Forged in Fire for the jump in prices/pound if you want, wasn't their intent just a side product of entertainment. Anvils are the king of tools and good ones will always be pricey (unless you get lucky - happens all the time).

Your best bet all round is to find some locals that have some experience and get a little hands-in/hands-on experience even if you have to pay a little. This will save you a lot of guessing, backtracking and frustration.
Little research and you will find there are several smiths and knifemakers closer than you might think. They aren't standing at the end of their driveways with signs and seldom go out looking for conscripts, but almost everyone of them I know are willing to share what they know, just like here.

I said all this not to dissuade you from moving forward, but to instill an awareness of the journey ahead. Most of the makers you respect have thousands of knives under their belts and more than a few years learning and developing their approach to this craft.

Side note - fill out your profile, including you general location. You might be living right down the road from someone on here.


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