Far from new to blacksmithing but new to this forum

[Deleted member 84]

I have been a smith for over 30 years. Mainly a edged weapons maker today but started out learning how to manipulate mild steel in making camp wares and grew that into forging carbon steel. I found that learning on mild steel to be the most cost effective way to learn how to roll, drift, fold and shape steel without it costing an arm and a leg and had a good teacher back then. I took a respite from my work for a few years shortly after the plague hit our country working for others but am back in the workshop today in Cleveland Georgia. Mainly a knife, sword and tomahawk maker. A wildfire took out my workshop as well as my garage in March of this year and it got me to realizing I needed to be back home working where I belonged so I am back to starting over on a smaller scale than I had in the past. I have acquired all the tools and supplies I need to begin again and have already started hammering out a few knife blades. As well as forging steel I do my own casting work, working with brass, yellow and white bronze and for special projects silver. In my casting work I use two part mold forms and delft sand. There are plenty of tutorials out there for those that are beginners and schools that teach blacksmithing that you can learn a lot from but know that unless you are an artist at heart that does not mind getting sweaty and dirty most will just do it as hobby work. If you have a lot of patience and the time to learn the craft in time you will be noticed. Stay humble

 

[Alan]

Hi Will King, You appear to have a lot of information you could share with the new members joining to learn about blacksmithing. Please feel free to post often about how to do beginner projects or what basic tools may be needed to get started.