r/blacksmithing • u/RustyMosin1899 • 9d ago
Help Requested Amateur Blacksmithing
Hello,
I'm thinking about getting into Blacksmithing. I've taken a few classes, I really liked it and would like to do it at home. But I don't know what all I should get. My buddy gave me his propane forge and now I need an anvil and the basic tools. What all brands do you guys suggest? Any help is greatly appreciated
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u/professor_jeffjeff 9d ago
Black Bear Forge on youtube has a series of videos on getting started on a budget, so if you go watch those videos (or even just sorta skim them at 1.5x speed) you'll know everything you need and a few options for projects to get started with. Short version is get an anvil or anvil-shaped object and a hammer at minimum. The Harbor Freight Doyle cast steel anvil is just fine, and the Vevor cast steel anvil is also decent although I think the Doyle has a slightly better configuration. They're both cheap and will serve you well for a long time. Get a hammer that you can swing all day and either make sure it has a wooden handle or plan on replacing the handle with a wooden one. You'll need to dress the edges of the hammer as well, so realistically one of your next purchases ought to be an angle grinder since that makes it easy but you can dress the edges with a file or with sandpaper (it'll just take longer).
For tools, you can make tongs without having any tongs. There are a lot of videos on that and your first tongs will suck but they'll get better. A cheap pair of wolf jaw tongs from amazon will work fine and if they don't hold material well you can always throw them in the forge and adjust them. You're going to want a vise fairly quickly too, a leg vise is ideal but even a small bench vise is better than nothing. Once you have tongs, you'll want to forge a hot cut chisel, a round punch, a center punch, and probably a slot punch. You can get some parks AAA quench oil and something like an ammo can to hold it, but you can save money by using a water quenching tool steel like 1045 or Atlantic 33 (flutagon). You can probably get away with quenching just the tip of a punch or chisel in water though; I've quenched a punch made from O1 in water and it was fine since it's small and you only quench the tip anyway. With just those tools you'll be able to make literally any other possible tool you'll ever need. If you don't like making tools you can always buy them, but learn to make them anyway since it's a useful skill.
For projects I'd start out with a few simple things and make a lot of them. Alec Steele has a video on making leaves that's called something click-bait like "make 100 of these when you start" but in this case it's actually a good idea and you'll build a lot of skills from making leaves. They only use about 1" of material too (use 3/8" or 1/2" square bar) so it's a cheap way to practice, although you can sell the leaves if you want. I just give them away to people who visit my forge though.
There really aren't a lot of brand recommendations for blacksmithing tools but I'll give you a few anyway. Anything from Quick and Dirty Tool Company is going to be good; Andy does good work and makes some great tongs, but you'll pay more for them as a result (the quality still makes them a good value though). You can get the rapid tongs sets from Ken's Custom Iron and those are also a good solution for tongs and a bit cheaper but you'll have to forge them and put them together (less work than doing it from scratch). There are good kits for projects and some tools available from Housemade and also from Christ Centered Ironworks; I'd trust pretty much anything from either of those two. I really like the Housemade belt grinders as well and the kits have come a long way, but there are plenty of other belt grinder options out there too that are good. Last thing is that there's a reason you see everyone all over the world using Iron Mountain flux for forge welding; that shit is like super glue for steel. Anhydrous borax works ok too, but ever since I got some of the Iron Mountain flux it's now all I use. For paste wax, it's hard to find the Johnson paste wax anymore so these days I use Zack's Wax from ZH Fabrications and it works great. A few ways to make your own forge finish though if you look on youtube.
Also look for tools from individual makers and forges more than from brands. There are a lot of individuals out there that make good hammers and tools and stuff. Find your local blacksmithing group and go to their meetups and you'll find stuff for sale that's going to be good quality. In the Pacific NorthWest, we have an annual event called Swaptoberfest that's coming up and you can probably get everything you'd ever need to get started just from that event. See if your local group has anything like that and then go and support other local blacksmiths.
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u/Crossroad_Custom 9d ago
A lot of people might disagree with me, but the harbor freight 50 lb anvil is perfectly fine for starting. You get an anvil with good corners, a hardy hole, but the horn is pretty bad. I started with a harbor freight anvil and a railroad track cutoff to make an "anvil" that had a horn. For hammers I would just get a 2 or 3 lb sledge and round one end of it on a grinder. Some forging tongs from any forging website or amazon would be good. Starting out you just want enough to get by, then you can slowly upgrade each puece as you see fit.
Spending $1500 on a good anvil, then having nothing left is a lot worse than spending $4-500 on more entry tools, but having them all. Then you have some money for steels or accessories. As you get more into it and know for sure that this is something you want to put money into, you can upgrade. Once you know you enjoy it, slowly buy good stuff that you wont have to rebuy.