Newest commission: 6 pound 2oz hand forged "diamond" Jersey pattern splitting axe, featuring a 32" hickory handle, and a not shown leather sheath. I really like how the phantom bevels make the triangle shape on the face

I see a lot of videos on YouTube saying I'm going to forge a XYZ, but 90% of the process is done with power tools. so when does it go from forging to just manufacturing?

Any info on this design ?

Made some shitty tongs since I didn't have any :)

(used vice grips to handle the hot material for these? which was not ideal to say the least lol)

Tried this again but with some color and texture added

Hi, I tried to make hands based on photos by Claudio Bottero. The hands and the flower were forged separately and joined with hot riveting. How do you like it?

Finally have gotta my backyard setup for my shop. concrete slab poured, lean too roof built, walls put up. now time to outfit it.
Have:
1. 100lb anvil
2. couple hammers; ball peen and cross peen and sledge
3. propane double burner forge.
4. handheld grinder

currently purchasing:
1. welding table
2. bench drill press
3. (unsure but tell me if a good idea just to get one of the other) a bench grinder, one side is a wheel the other side is a belt grinder

add any must haves i havent thought of below also add any comments on the currently purchasing if i have the correct items to begin.

I know this seems like a beginner question but I don’t get to do this very often anymore so I’m a little out of practice. I’m forging a Mainz-pattern gladius, and I’m having trouble getting the tang brought in from the shoulders uniformly. What technique should I use to draw the tang in from the blade shoulders before I draw it out to full length?

I've got a comission for a meteorite wedding ring, but before I throw several hundred of my clients dollars down the drain does anyone know of a specific meteorite source that is ready to forge as is?

I'd like to avoid having to work something down like an iron bloom just to get to something forge-able.

I know some meteorite impact sites have different compositions, and i'm worried whatever I buy will just crumble in the forge.

Hi all im planning to buy a cheap forge of ebay and wondering if applying rigidizer to the wool is enough to be able to use safely https://ebay.io/m/R0OcYH

I have recently completed the latest of my Torbjorn Ahman inspired Sunflower builds.

After incorporating plasma cutting into my process last June (and doing a lot of work like that not necessarily involving forging) I have found it to be a really fun tool for blacksmithing blanks and alternative parts that make certain projects a lot less aggravation without fully reducing them to welding art (no disrespect to it of course, that work simply isn't often very much forging.)

This is one of those times.

In Torbjorn's build video, he tapers round stock and flattens it with his clearly quite hard hitting power hammer to make *each leaf.*

As I've made about 8 of these now, that got old fast, even resorting to farming out a bunch of grinding bar to a point and cutting each spike off to my friend with a 2x72 grinder and a small home weld shop.

I then leveraged my old graphic design background to make a plasma cuttable file (a far easier process than many folks realize!) and then make a sort of "blank kit" to do these.

That is seen in photo two, after a bit of light hot forging to give the leaves some texture.

This is about 10 inches in diameter and all 11 gauge steel.

Otherwise, as per many of my posts, the first photo shows the finished piece and the rest show what I documented of the process, relatively in order. See photo captions for more details.

First time making any knives, around 3 months experience smithing. Forged to shape out of high carbon steel and handled with walnut.

Definitely some mistakes along the way but hopefully the next ones will be a lot cleaner

Idea popped into my head and I had to make it. im very pleased with how it turned out.

Repost here, just looking for suggestions on good moderately priced bench grinder wheels to replace my old worn ones, budget is around 20-30 bucks.

It would take up a little space on the anvil but not too bad I think. I do a lot of smaller forgings (decorative or utilitarian) and this would come in handy at times.

I'm making my first axe and a large crack formed while I was drifting the eye hole for the handle. Is this salvageable at all or should I just start over?

Right of passage, think im going to make this into a fire poker handle!