is make sure you have the right tools. Now the "right" tools are not hard to get your hands on, I personally have very few "real blacksmithing tools" but there are alot of things that can be used as "blacksmithing tools" that you probably have laying around, and if not they're very cheap.
I've gotten most of my hand tools from garage sales and just word of mouth
"hey man, I'm a blacksmith, I'm in the market for some tools" "well that's funny I've had this hammer head just taking up space for ages!" That sort of thing.
but mostly garage sales, I personally am a huge garage sale fan, if your looking for tools a barn sale would be the place to go, drive around any populated area in the spring/summer time and there will be no shortage of sales I guarantee you that, and the best thing about buying something used is that if it's in good shape it means it outlasted it's previous owner use and it should do the same for you, that way you know it's not cheap and junky.
Another thing is that if your buying it from a garage sale and if it's a tool, the owner might not know what they're selling (seriously i got a $1500 anvil for $200) and they'll practically give it away! I've gotten hammers, tongs, steal, saw blades, spuds/chisels, and advice from going to garage sales, barn sales, and actions!
there's is no reason you should buy a hammer new!!!!!!
POWER TOOLS?
Power tools are VERY handy, there very useful and they get work done quicker!
In my mind there's no reason you shouldn't have them on your smithy, I know some like to do things the old fashion way and I respect that, heck it's how I started out!
but unless you have something against them there is no reason not to have them, they make everything so much easier!
if you looking to get some, again I'd recommend garage sales, barn sales, or actions. But you'll want to be careful about what you buy,
I mean if your offered a belt sander for $10 don't think, GET!!!!
But if your spending some real money, you'll want to look for a good brand name. I personally like Craftsman, if it says Craftsman on it it's a green flag for me. I have few of those as well but with the right combination of tools, and if you know what your doing, you wont need to many tools for what your doing.
my belt sander, it's not industrial but it gets the job done.
My bench grinder, it has a wire wheel which is very handy for cleaning unpolished or rusty metal.
Those are the only two big power tools I have, besides my angle grinder (the orange thing in the first picture) and you don't need these two machines, but they help, a lot.
HEAVY METAL.
There are quite a few heavy metal tools you'll want to have, the first of which is an anvil.
for a substitute Anvil or just a cheap pounding surface you don't want to dent up you can use an old railroad plate
You can find then along old railways, garage sales, scrap yards, and if you can find somewhere (there no real place for it) that someone has dumped some old railroad ties that's perfect, mainly cause the ties are rotting away and there should be more plates then you can carry, and there should be alot of spikes as well (spikes a VERY handy I work with them constantly, you should pick them up) IMPORTANT!!! : picking up plates or spikes or any other part of the railroad track from a working railroad is against the law, it sucks and it's stupid but you should try and find and old one that your sure is not working, or find a place where some one has dumped some ties.
That said i think that's about the basic, bare-bone rundown of simple blacksmithing tools, if you read this and still are a little confused about what you need for what your doing, here's a couple tips the help
1: If your going to be making horseshoes you probably don't need a Vice or a belt sander, or a grinder or any big power tools. However an Anvil will be VERY nice and a set of different hammers raging from "ball peen" to "sledge" would be very nice. there's websites all for the blacksmithing of horse shoes so a quick google search will provide a good bit of info for beginners
2: If your making knives (which is what i specialise in) you'll want an Anvil, and at least three different hammers, a grinder, and a sander (if you have an angle grinder like the one in the picture above there are sanding wheels you can put on those that will work just as well as a belt sander) The hammers you'll want will be a big sledge (4-8 pounds), a ball peen, and a and smaller sledge (2-4 pounds) it's a good idea for your sledges to have a rounded end to move the metal easier. I'll cover that in a later post along with how to choose an Anvil. NOTE: YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANY HAMMERS! get as many as you can!!!
3: If your making art, and you never know what you'll want to do next (I specialise in this too) you'll want every tool and metal you can get your coal-blacked hands on! EVERY tool, go to garage sales and barn sales! if you don't have it (or even if you do but have a great deal in front of you) GET IT!!
4: If you don't know that you'll be doing and you just want to try it out, sit down, close your eyes an imaging your first project, what it'll look like when it's done and how you'll go about making it, don't imagine the tools you'll use think purely of what you'll do to it to make it what you want, then think "what kind of tools could be used for that job?" and the ideas will fly! see the trick to this is if you think of the tools doing things to the metal in your head you'll only think of the tools you've seen, if you imagine what you need to do and then think of what could do that you'll have a better understanding of what kind of tool you need even if you don't know what it is or if you've seen it before, when you see it though, you'll say "oh, that'll do it!" yea, I know, that was a bit confusing.
Well that's about it! If you have ANY questions I will be more then happy to answer them you can contact me through google+ or you can Email me at
craftsmanofmich@gmail.com I'd love some feedback, Thanks, Eric.
