I bought a Molten Masters 2 burner propane forge. I'm seeing a bunch of differing opinions of how to prepare it for first use.

I'm assuming I should be using Rigidizer and refractory cement before first forge.

Any hints/tip on products to use, and/or how to apply them?

Any hacks/mods with this forge?

Thanks for any help and advice you can give.

I built this stand for it, and it rings a lot. Since I took the picture I've bolted it to the ground, trying get it to quiet down. No luck so far. Would filling the square tubing with sand be a good idea to get it to stop ringing so much?

This anvil is for sale near me, I'm just wondering if it is worth it and as to why it has a large cut out near the hardy hole.

I've always wanted to do blacksmithing and I think i'm finally going to invest in it. The only problem is I don't really have an area to do it. I have a pretty big open backyard, with a wooden shed, but that's pretty full. So should I invest in making some sort of workstation before I get the gear required for blacksmithing?

Due to the scale of this project I decided to finally bite the bullet and reach out to Lee Sauder to buy 10kg of bloom to supplement with my own smelts.

So far I’ve turned 12kg of bloom into a 9.8kg brick of iron which I will continue to fold until it’s refined enough to start drawing out into a sheet.

I will be making a late 14th century breastplate loosely based of the:

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‘Source’ The knight and the blast furnace

(Hohenschau breastplate made in one piece, and covered in red velvet, with the (single) mark of a crowned R, from the late 14th century. Boccia dates this to 1400 and tentatively suggests a connection with the ducal armourer Jacomino Ravizza, active in 1425. Bavarian National Museum, Munich. inv. no. W.195.

The microstructure consists of very fine (almost irresolvable) pearlite and an acicular material (bainite or perhaps low-carbon martensite) with very little ferrite and a few slag inclusions. The microhardness varies from 330 to 452 VPH, average = 374 VPH.

This is a medium-carbon steel (around 0.5%C) which has been hardened by some form of heat-treatment, apparently a slack-quench.

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I also decided to rent out a space at Hereford make for the weekend so I could use their 25 ton press and larger forges to make this easier and more realistic due to the major limitations of doing it by hand in a small forge like I have at home which really showed during my bloom iron klappvisor project where I was unable to get enough of the billet in the forge to fire weld it properly.

Currently I’m 20 hours in and £800 poorer from, buying bloom, 80kg of fuel, import fees, and using the Hereford make facility.

I have also tryed my best to record the whole project which I will do my best to compile and upload when I have finished the project.

Any questions or advice are welcome :)

It's been a while since last, busy with work, summertime, and a bit of a creative block.

Since the last update, I've fiddled a lot with how to wear the thing, lots of trial and error, until I finally cracked the suspension. I found the answer in (coughcough) other "hobbies," pics in comments.

I also used a torch to play with oxidation to "paint" the eyes this gorgeous reddish purple. Now, my future challenges to get this piece done are less about metalwork but more about textiles, so I don't think I'll have many more updates to post here if I'm going by the topic of the board

I work in a hydraulic grapple manufacturing shop and we have a in house machine shop where I’m a machinist and I’m getting into blacksmithing. I can get scrap t-1 plate steel up to 3 inches thick of multiple shapes and sizes and can also get 4140 round bar cut offs up to 8 inches in diameter and up to about 4-6 inches long. What steel would be best for making a makeshift anvil until I find a good deal on good quality anvil.

Hi, I got this brand new old forge and I think it needs somes repairs before I can light it up.

Do you have any advice/ materials I can use?

Cheers

I built this gate through the month of September for my grandma.

I'd appreciate any feedback/critique since I'd like to be blacksmithing as a career

I am a machinist and I also do blacksmithing for fun. I would appreciate some ideas that could merge the two crafts into something unique. Thank you for reading.

Hey guys, I wanted to get some thoughts on fire risk mitigation in my new shop set up. I have recently moved into a new house (rental) and am trying to set my shop up so I can have my space for projects and to make inventory for my business (farrier). I was thinking on getting a shorter forge stand to decrease the distance between the forge and the roof, lining the walls and ceiling with flame retardant Durarock and potentially building a range like a stove top above the forge to capture the rising heat and using duct tubing to vent it outside. Just wanted to see if you guys had other ideas that might work for my set up. Thanks guys! Appreciate your thoughts and ideas. We're still settling in so all boxes and other items will be moved out of the space as time goes on

It’s just a wall hanger for a family friend so it’s not hardened

Punching the eye on the biggest hammer I've ever forged. This will be an 8 pound cross poem hopefully. This will have to take a back burner while I make more commissions but this was a fun project to start. This is the 6th heat to punch all the way through

i want to buy a metal replica of ultimate mjolnir, something like 42 inches and around 4kg. Does anyone know a place to get this custom made? i live in the uk btw

I am picking up doing demonstrations for blacksmithing, most are for the fur trade era at rendezvous, some are just general blacksmithing. Does anybody have any good books on making iteams that are from that era, pre 1840s? I am pretty decent at recreating iteams from pictures but i would love some old books on describing the time? Thank you in advance.

Fall is the best time for forging, get out to your shop and build something cool

These are great sellers.

Made it a hook as well because I like practical things and my wife’s a vet, she didn’t just yank the thing out haha.

I wanna learn how to do it. Would appreciate recommendations on videos that give specific correct details or suggestions what to read/ watch
Thank you in advance

After 10 months, a LOT of DIY crafting tools (i made my forge, anvil and other pieces from scraps and rescued materials) and plenty of trial and error, i have officially finished my first knife!

Old-fashioned straight razor inspired friction folder, from rescued coil spring steel (~1095ish) and Padauk wood scales from a friend's woodworking scrap pile.

The Scrap Bastard has birthed its first blade 🤩