c/blacksmiths

One critique about my hammer hits turned my whole shop around

An old timer in Tuscaloosa told me I was swinging like I was trying to kill the anvil, not move the steel, so I slowed my rhythm and started letting the hammer bounce naturally. Within a month my scrolls came out cleaner and my wrists stopped aching, anyone else get a piece of advice that flipped their technique?

Rant: my forge chimney pipe changed color overnight in Nashville

I fired up the forge last Tuesday like always, but the next morning the pipe above the firepot had this bright orange scale flaking off, never saw that before in 4 years of smithing. Turns out I bumped the air gate too high and hit way past welding heat for about 20 minutes, and that thin wall pipe finally gave up. Anyone else had their chimney section warp or scale after a hot accident like that, and did you just replace the pipe or rework your setup?

Appreciation post: The old anvil at the Arvada heritage forge

I stopped by the little blacksmith shop at the Arvada historical park last Saturday. They have a 200 pound anvil from the 1880s that still rings true, and it got me thinking about how much our tools have changed. These days I use a hydraulic press and a power hammer, but standing there, watching a kid flatten a horseshoe with a hand hammer, I remembered the satisfaction of doing it slow. Has anyone else gone back to a museum forge and felt like the old methods still have something to teach us?

Hammer handle broke on a Friday the 13th job in Tulsa

Had a custom railing order due that afternoon. 10 inch cross peen just snapped at the grip on the third strike. Went flying across the shop, almost took out my anvil horn. I got a spare handle but the wedges were all wrong. Took 3 tries to get it seated right. Customer showed up early and watched the whole mess. He just laughed and said 'at least it wasn't your head.' Got the railing done by 4pm but my arm was shot for the weekend. Anyone else ever lose a handle mid-swing and just call it a day after that?

A visitor at my shop asked why I still use a coal forge, and it got me thinking

He said he figured everyone was running propane by now, and when I told him coal gives me better heat control on odd-shaped pieces, he just nodded quiet, but that conversation made me realize I've been defaulting to propane for small jobs out of habit, not because it's actually better, so have any of you switched back to an older setup after going modern?

A farm auction in Ohio made me ditch my fancy forge burner setup

I drove 2 hours to this estate sale near Chillicothe last month, mostly for an anvil. Didn't win the anvil (went for $400, way over my budget), but I watched this old guy run a demo on a homemade burner he built from a car muffler and some pipe fittings. Thing ran so clean and quiet, no roar, no soot. My $180 store bought burner sounds like a jet engine and spits scale everywhere. He handed me the piece and said try it. I did, hit welding heat in about 4 minutes. Sold my fancy burner the next week. Anyone else had luck with junk pile builds over the catalog stuff?

That forge demo at the county fair changed my whole setup

Watched a guy at the Lane County Fair run a coal forge with a hand-crank blower and now I'm ditching my gas forge for the cheap cast iron one I found at a swap meet, has anyone else switched back to coal after seeing it done right?

The shop forge in Denver taught me a trick about rusty bolts

Spent 30 minutes fighting a seized bolt on an old trailer hitch last week. Then the guy running the forge next to me said heat the nut until it glows dull red, let it cool on its own, and it'll spin right off. Has anyone else tried that or is it just one of those old shop myths that works half the time?

That $30 harbor freight anvil changed my mind about cheap tools

After 6 months of fighting a chunk of railroad track, I grabbed a cast iron anvil on sale and it rang so dead I almost returned it, but then I realized the silence meant my hammer blows were actually staying in the work instead of bouncing back at my wrist, so now I get why the old timers say soft anvils teach you better control, anyone else start on scrap metal and then switch to something 'too soft'?

Gas forge vs. coal forge after my first year of blades

I ran a coal forge for 12 months at my uncle's place in Ohio and switched to gas last spring. Coal gives you that traditional feel but I was spending 2 hours just managing the fire for every hour of hammering. Gas lets me set the temp and actually focus on my steel, and my knife edges come out way more consistent. I know some folks swear coal makes better steel, but honestly my 1095 blades have never warped less. Anyone else make the switch and never look back?

My favorite cross pein finally gave up after 12 years, what do you use now?

Had my old cross pein hammer since I started doing hooks and brackets on the side. The handle split right down the middle last Tuesday while I was roughing out a leaf shape. Nothing dramatic, just a loud crack and the head flew into the dirt. I tried wrapping it with tape to finish the job but that lasted about 4 swings. So now I'm looking at replacement handles and thinking about whether to just buy a whole new hammer. Anyone else hold onto a worn out tool way past its prime, or am I the only sentimental fool here? What's your go to hammer for general forge work these days?

An old-timer told me my tongs were too fancy. He was right.

I spent 2 months forging a pair of box-jaw tongs with all these precise grooves and a spring handle. Brought them to a demo in Dayton last Saturday and this guy who's been smithing since the 70s just laughed. He said I was making jewelry, not tools, and handed me his plain pair that's been beat up for 30 years. I tried his on a stubborn 1/2 inch bar and they gripped better than mine ever did. So I went home and remade my tongs with flat jaws and a rivet, no fancy bits. It took one afternoon and they work way better. Anyone else had to strip down their work to make it actually functional?

Spent $140 on a used power hammer, now my shoulder thanks me

Been swinging a sledge for 12 years and figured I was fine. Last month I grabbed an old 25lb Little Giant from a farm auction near Omaha. The flywheel was rough and it needed new bushings, but after two weekends it runs smooth. First full day of work with it and my elbow didn't ache at all. I wish I had bought one ten years ago instead of talking myself out of it. Anyone else make the jump to a power hammer and wonder why they waited so long?

The old anvil at the county fair demo got me thinking about tradition vs speed

Watched a guy at the state fair last Saturday forge a leaf with just a hammer and anvil, took him 20 minutes. Meanwhile the shop down the road from me cranks out the same thing in 3 with a power hammer. Does the slow way still matter for the craft, or are we just romanticizing the past because it looks cool? Anyone else feel torn on this?

That master smith in Ohio told me to forge hotter, not harder. He was right.

Old guy named Walt at a demo outside Columbus watched me beat my brains out on a piece of 1095 and just said "you're fighting the steel, kid." I was used to working at a lower orange because I was scared of burning thin stock, so I kept hammering like crazy to move it. He had me crank the forge up to a bright yellow and the same piece basically shaped itself, took maybe 4 minutes instead of 20. Has anyone else held a habit like that for years just because some early tutorial told you to? I've been hearing the opposite advice from younger smiths lately, so I'm curious which camp you all land in.

Regret dropping $120 on a cheap anvil from a flea market

Picked up what looked like a solid anvil at a flea market outside Tulsa for 120 bucks. Turned out the face was case-hardened mild steel, not tool steel, and it started chipping after maybe 40 hours of work. I hammered a leaf spring on it and chunks flew off like popcorn. Now I gotta either weld it up and grind it down or just eat the loss. A real anvil from a proper dealer woulda set me back triple that, but at least it would last. Anyone else get burned by a bargain anvil that was too good to be true? How do you test a used anvil before you hand over cash?

Demo day at a county fair changed my mind about propane forges

My 4lb rounding hammer head flew off mid-swing on Tuesday

I was flattening a 1 inch bar of 1080 and the wedge gave out after 8 years, the head bounced off my anvil and cracked a cinder block behind the shop, so now I'm trying epoxy and a new wedge but has anyone else had a head launch on them?

Spent 60 bucks on a cheap anvil stand kit, should have just built one

Last month I ordered one of those bolt-together anvil stands off the internet, thought it would save me time. The base wobbles on my concrete floor even after I tightened everything twice, and the rubber pads already started splitting. I ended up welding a simple stand from scrap 2x4 tubing in an afternoon, cost me maybe 15 dollars in gas and wire. Has anyone else had better luck with a homemade stand versus the store bought ones, or am I just cursed with bad luck?

I finally figured out why my tongs kept slipping on round stock

Last week at the shop in Fresno I got fed up after dropping a 3/4 inch rod for the third time in an hour. I've been forging for about 5 years and always blamed cheap tongs or sweaty hands. Turns out my jaw curves were cut too shallow and too flat for round material. I spent one afternoon reworking the bites with a grinder to match the radius, like a V with a rounded bottom instead of a straight notch. Now the same old tongs grab tight with way less squeeze pressure. Anyone else found that regrinding the jaw profile fixes more than buying new tongs ever does?

My $15 Harbor Freight punch changed my life

Struggled for months punching through 1/4 inch steel with a drift. Hand hurt, holes were ugly. Picked up a cheap center punch at the Harbor Freight in Tulsa. Clean holes now, no sore wrists. Anyone else find a cheap tool that just works better?

Finally got the heat right on my first forge weld after 18 tries

Everyone's so focused on the hammer blows and flux but nobody talks about how the color of the steel in low light is way different than bright daylight and that's where I kept screwing up for months.

The heat treat trick that took me 4 years to figure out

I kept getting blades that were either too soft or too brittle, especially on 1084 steel. Turns out I was rushing the normalization step, like doing one cycle and calling it good. A buddy at a hammer-in last spring told me to do three full cycles with cooling to black between each one. Now my edges hold up way better and I don't get those random cracks. Anyone else skip normalization and regret it later?

Why does nobody talk about hammer eye alignment in beginner videos

I spent my first two years as a blacksmith buying cheap hammers with poorly drifted eyes, thinking my handles kept loosening because I was bad at wedging. A guy at a hammer-in popped the handle out of mine and showed me the eye was slightly hourglass shaped, which meant the wedge had no shoulder to grab. Anybody else run into this issue with budget tools, or am I just unlucky with my local supplier?

I was dead wrong about those fancy Japanese chisels

Spent years swearing by my $20 flea market beaters until I borrowed a friend's set from Hattori last month and cut through some hardened oak like butter. Has anyone else had a tool flip their whole mindset after one afternoon?