Best products from r/blacksmithing

Depends on what you're doing with them really.

You can go the expensive route and get some Norton Blaze ceramic grit belts for $10 per belt.

Or get some cheap Powertec belts that last half as long, but are 1/5th the price.

As far as grits go, I look at it like this:

36 grit - good for removing tons of material, leaves giant, giant marks though.

80 grit - a good point to start when removing material.

120 grit - good for removing a fair amount of metal, leaves a basically acceptable surface finish

400 grit - doesn't remove a ton of metal, but leaves a nice finish.

800-1200 grit - good for final sharpening steps.

Micron range - black, green and then white buffing compounds, in order of decreasing roughness - good for mirror polishes. I usually don't go past 400 grit if I am going to use the buffer on something, as higher grits past 400 don't seem to make much if any difference in how long it takes to buff something smooth.

Looks like I don't know how to use reddit... so coment. first time poster here not english native...

Recently thanks to the show forged in fire i've decided to try and make a knife and wanted to share It.

It's not the most beautiful thing ever but looks like a knife and cuts so I'm happy, in fact I'm so happy and proud that I want to try to forge more things so, what do you recomend for starters? I whould love to make an axe but I dont know if its to difficult for a begginer specially considering that the only iron/steel I have easy acces to is rebar and i whould have to forge weld it into a more usable piece.

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Also the anvil I borrowed will be no more so I looked into a webpage that recomended this anvils wich are in my budget. you know if they are any good or a waste of money?

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https://www.amazon.es/ENERGYHit-1000-Yunque-profesional-Ancho/dp/B00LCQTYMQ?SubscriptionId=AKIAINNXJ6O5RJZV4YEQ&tag=compraryunque-21&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B00LCQTYMQ&keywords=yunque%2010%20kg

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https://www.amazon.es/Mannesmann-M-710-10-Yunque-10/dp/B0002YYLD6?SubscriptionId=AKIAINNXJ6O5RJZV4YEQ&tag=compraryunque-21&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B0002YYLD6&keywords=yunque%2010%20kg

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https://www.amazon.es/Sealey-ANV11-yunque-11-kg/dp/B00S17WJZS?SubscriptionId=AKIAINNXJ6O5RJZV4YEQ&tag=compraryunque-21&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B00S17WJZS&keywords=yunque

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Thanks

As well as buying that book, i also bought this book from Amazon.

The Sims book is a great resource for getting started. She walks you through the very beginnings and I loved her photos.

The Weygers book is just insane in terms of what you come to understand a qualified blacksmith is actually capable of creating. It's not as polished, but I think that you could pretty much maintain a small society with the information in that book and the proper skills. He has a special focus on tool making (he's a wood carver and looks to have made each of his tools) as well.

Backyard Blacksmith like Raeladar recommended, by Lorelei Sims
http://www.amazon.com/The-Backyard-Blacksmith-Traditional-Techniques/dp/1592532519/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341272167&sr=8-1&keywords=backyard+blacksmith

The Complete Bladesmith by Jim Hrisoulas has a TON of detailed info like forgewelding (important throughout blacksmithing, not just bladesmithing)
http://www.amazon.com/The-Complete-Bladesmith-Forging-Perfection/dp/1581606338/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1341272167&sr=8-4&keywords=backyard+blacksmith


and The Complete Modern Blacksmith by Alexander Weygers has good info as well
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Modern-Blacksmith-Alexander-Weygers/dp/0898158966/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_c

my library is growing from these books as well as the forge I'm putting together.

Once you have it out of the vinegar (a little left-over rust is OK here, as long as it's not flaky - at six days now, it's probably already good), scrub it down with steel wool and dishwashing liquid, rinse until clean, and dry. Apply veg oil (something with a high smoke point, like peanut), and bake at 500 F. Let cool, lightly scour the resultant surface with a greenie and water, then dry, oil, and bake again.

That should get you an ideal cooking surface.

I am by no means an experienced blacksmith, but I found this book to be fairly enlightening when I was first getting into it: The Complete Modern Blacksmith.

It covers stuff like the forge /u/ColinDavies outlined.. and gives a very good intro into the "bootstraping" nature of blacksmithing (IMO :D)!

you could always take a rotary tool, a pointed diamond bit, a ruler and a gold,silver or bronze sharpie (if your i beam is dark in color if its somewhat shiny you can just use a normal black sharpie) and make that drilled round hole into a square one.

for a horn a i just thought up a mod for a I-beam anvil. what you will need, get a good thick piece of round stock (a axle or thick spring from a car would work as its good high carbon steel), a blowtorch head, a small bottle of MAP gas, and if you do not have it a angle grinder with a proper abrasive disk for grinding and a cut off head.

First Grind the round stock into a proper tapered horn leaving a bit of a original materials size on the back end. Next switch to the cutting disk and cut off a appropriate amount of the middle section of the I beam off. Next using the Map gas get top of the beam to a nice orange color,(it will take some time) take your hammer and hammer it to a 90 dgree angle. let it cool fully. then drill a hole into it the size of the horn. now the extra material should stop it from falling out and also serves to hold it in place for the next step. Next reheat the section back to orange and hammer down on it to hot form the extended piece to the horn. you may need to do some hardening to and tempering at the end to make sure it will not brake under the strain of working it.


Keep in mind I have not tried this out as I came up with it as I was writing it. I just use a Vise anvil hybrid and use the face of the vice as a shaping horn. However i am a Hobby bladesmith not a blacksmith.

Or you could shell out 15.05 for this Or you could ju st buy this https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B003ES5T9C/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and mod the horn to your liking.
and just grind down the horn. i use this one, however i kinda need to buy new nuts and bolts for it as I lost 2 well moving it to install the vise anvil hybrid i am now using.

If it's hot enough to melt a little bit and your insulation is good enough, then you can melt a lot.

I was going to combine this with this for the bucket build, and have holes through the lid for these. Make a stopper for the sight hole and a lip on the lid to minimize oxygen introduction. Should work out pretty OK.

i did a quick google to see if leaf springs were ideal and they are so i put out feelers for some of those.

And also in the course of that found recommendation for the $50 knife shop book so I bought him that on amazon. link: https://www.amazon.com/Wayne-Goddards-Knife-Shop-Revised/dp/0896892956/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1482254778&sr=8-1&keywords=50+knife+shop

Thanks folks You both got me exactly what I needed!

Ceramic wool is specifically made for applications like this, it shouldn't just burn up. It sounds like you've got wool not rated for the right temperatures or something you're putting in the forge is degrading it. Either way, if commercially available products aren't working, then homemade ones are very unlikely to work. I've used stuff like this and it held up great.

This one seems good

Happybuy 1KG Gold Melting Furnace 2102℉ Digital Melting Furnace Machine Heating Capacity 1800W Casting Refining for Precious Metals Gold Silver Tin Aluminum (1KG) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071PBVSJQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_VD1jDbR77J9GB

Used this one 2 years for everything involving grinding, sanding, painting and absolutely love it https://www.amazon.com/Rugged-Comfort-Facepiece-Reusable-Respirator/dp/B00IF7RBS4/ref=sr_1_8?keywords=3m+mask&qid=1566030406&s=gateway&sr=8-8

https://www.amazon.com/Palmgren-Belt-bench-finishing-machine/dp/B0006577HI/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?keywords=2x48+belt+sander&qid=1573486028&sprefix=2x48+&sr=8-4
This is one that I've bought for my knives. It's great plenty of belts for a 2x42 to choose from.

Can confirm- I have this and it's a great book to learn from. If you're looking for a book centered more in bladesmithing, here's your bible- https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Bladesmith-Forging-Your-Perfection/dp/1581606338

There are two knifemaking subreddits, /r/knifemaking and /r/Bladesmith. If you want to get him steel Amazon stock O1 tool steel which will be much nicer for him to work with than leaf springs - https://www.amazon.com/Precision-Ground-Annealed-Thickness-Length/dp/B00CZDPAI2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1482297534&sr=8-1&keywords=o1+steel. If you go with that I would suggest getting 5/32 inch thickness and 1.5 or 2 inch width, and whatever length you prefer.

typical beginner projects that i've seen include tongs, bottle openers, round-square-round practice, nails, hammers.

depending on how deep into the art you want to get, if you want to mainly focus on knives, then i'd stick with them; start with basic utility blades, work your way up to fighting knives, and eventually kitchen knives. if you want to dive head first into the art as a whole, then work on decorative stuff; art pieces, s-hooks, wall-mount hangers, whatever. one of the best resources for beginning and experienced smiths alike is Plain and Ornamental Forging (https://www.amazon.com/Plain-Ornamental-Forging-Ernst-Schwarzkopf/dp/1879335956)

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Bladesmith-Forging-Your-Perfection/dp/1581606338/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1506287194&sr=1-3&keywords=knife+making This book has almost everything you need to know to get started and then some. It helped me a lot. The author is amazingly thorough. He even covers proper anvil height and hammer use.

*Edit: grammer and spelling