Blacksmithing Thread

[wayacoyote]

I'm interested in starting my own hobby blacksmithy. I've watched some Youtubes and have read on the subject over the years. I just need to do it. I'd love to take a short class on it. Does anyone out there do some smithing?

[honeyman46408]

There are a lot of ideas on this forum.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/metal/

[jgd]

Waya,
Try the link below, and look for BAMA link I think it is. The best way to get started is to find a local club and pay them a visit. Just like Bee Keeping a mentor can be the best teacher.
I have always found the Blacksmith's to be a bunch of good guys, willing to share.
I belong to IBA (Indiana Blacksmiths Asso.) If you ever get to west central Indiana send me a PM.
jd

http://www.abana.org/

[kustomizer]

Find a club near you as others have said, the thing they didn't mention is that these folks are activly searching for you, they love to share their skills.
here they call us
california blacksmiths association
but there are many such groups

[Joel]

When I was getting into beekeeping, a friend (not a beekeeper who convinced me to get bees) was getting into blacksmithing. He specialized in draft horses. As someone who has been around pleasure horses a great deal in my life I loved to go with him on his shoeing jobs. He was 5'11 235lb of muscle and the draft horses could pick him up with one leg and toss him around like the female half of an Apache Dance team. I watched him get kicked in the knee and his knee go in directions knees aren't supposed to. I've seen him get bitten and have a welt the size of a soft ball. He always had burns on his hands, a backache from hauling his anvil around and was soon to be tone deaf from the clang of the hammer on steel. I found the few pleasure horse people he dealt with to be some of the most difficult people on the planet. Oh yea, he always spent most of his money on gas for his torches and his forge and would spend hours looking at racks of shoes at the horseshoe sales guy place and digging through piles of steel at the scrap yard.

What part of blacksmithing is the fun part?

[kustomizer]

The horseshoe repairman is a Farrier, the blacksmiths I know of make mostly ornamental stuff and repair antiques, I imagine you still get more small burns and bloodblisters than normal folk, ( though some would think you nuts for chancing a bee sting or two ), making things with old world tools and handmade quality are very rewarding some of us. I do however like horses at a distance.

[KQ6AR]

I used to work with a horseshoer on my 1 day a week off. I was with him when he got his knee cap blown halfway off. He was given a shot of horse tranquilizer & I drove him to the hospital. He was there for a long time.

[kustomizer]

myself I am all for motorcycles and quadrunners, however I have made many a blacksmithing things up to and including a copper rose ( I guess that would be coppersmithing ) I made for my mothers memorial, she didn't want anything but I put a copper rose on the windmill where we spread her ashes as per her request. I will try to remember to post a pic.

[pchelovod]

When I was getting into beekeeping, a friend (not a beekeeper who convinced me to get bees) was getting into blacksmithing. He specialized in draft horses. As someone who has been around pleasure horses a great deal in my life I loved to go with him on his shoeing jobs. He was 5'11 235lb of muscle and the draft horses could pick him up with one leg and toss him around like the female half of an Apache Dance team. I watched him get kicked in the knee and his knee go in directions knees aren't supposed to. I've seen him get bitten and have a welt the size of a soft ball. He always had burns on his hands, a backache from hauling his anvil around and was soon to be tone deaf from the clang of the hammer on steel. I found the few pleasure horse people he dealt with to be some of the most difficult people on the planet. Oh yea, he always spent most of his money on gas for his torches and his forge and would spend hours looking at racks of shoes at the horseshoe sales guy place and digging through piles of steel at the scrap yard.

What part of blacksmithing is the fun part?

Over ten years ago, I had set of pull-down attic stairs in a townhouse in Arlington, Virginia. One of the parts had broken from years of use (metal fatigue) so I looked up a welder in the phone book. This guy had a full arc-welding shop in his garage. While he was working on the metal I mentioned to him that some of the smells and colors reminded me of watching my grandfather work on his forge (Gramp tinkered constantly, and often made stuff like brackets and custom parts on his anvil. He'd also worked with draft horses before tractors became common).

That arc-welder told me that he'd often see "historic" blacksmiths at trade shows and conventions and the like. And he said, "There's not a one of them that makes under $400,000 a year." The good money is apparently in historically authentic work, like nails, door hinges, etc, like you'd see at Colonial Willamsburg, Sturbridge Village and the like. He said that there was even a school somewhere (KY, TN?) to teach the craft as there were only a few hundred left who were pros.

Don't know if he was telling me the truth, but I could have a fair amount of fun on that kind of money!