Blacksmithing

From Macdiyvers

[edit] Building the 'forge.

When building your forge it's great if you can start with a BBQ, if not a couple of bricks laid out across the floor or a table should do fine for your base.

Once you have your base sorted you're going to want to, using normal house bricks, section off three sides keeping it the same size as what you plan to be heating up, if that makes sense. So if you wanted to heat up a metal pole to make a knife you'd only want a very narrow, about 4 inches wide, gap between the walls of brick.

Rule of thumb, make the gap about twice as wide as what you plan on forging. There you have your self a very simple yet massively effective forge...

[edit] Fuel

For fuel you want to use Charcoal. Brickettes are total shit and will spit at you and shit, so keep away from them. Coal works fine but takes much longer to get going.

If you want to make your own charcoal it's easy enough. Get a tin of quality street or something and stab a few holes on the top. Chock it full of wood, as much as possible, and leave it in a fire BBQ will do fine, or, as I do, make a fire separate to your 'forge' and make charcoal as you burn it.

So you have your 'forge' and your fuel. Now you need some 'bellows'.

Gonna have to reach deep for a second here in to the wallet. $5, get yourself a hair dryer, $2, a copper pipe (1 m) and 2$ a real of duct tape. See where this is going?

Drill some holes, about 20, in the bottom of the pipe, small ones; think tooth picks, and make the same end flat with no gap, or as little as possible. This can be done easily enough buy heating it up and hammering lightly on some concrete or something. Attach the other end to the hair dryer using duct tape to make it air tight. and there you have it, a 'bellow'.

Bury the pipe deep in the charcoal and only start blowing once the fire is going well. when there's a good stock of glowing shit in the fire you're good to stick your steal in.

[edit] Building the anvil

There are two paths you can choose here... One is Much, much, much better than the other.

Railroad rail. If you can get your hands on this shit - you're sorted. It's hard as balls and doesn't require any work. beat away.

If you can't get your hands on any, don't panic... Well, sulk a bit, but there is hope.

Get your hands on some steal, think I beams, and throw that in your fire after attaching a long chain to it(we'll use this chain to get it back out). Heat it up for what will most likely be $20 of charcoal and about 2 hours. Once it's glowing, give it a few more minuets and, using a magnet on a stick, check to see if it's magnetic. If it's lost it's magnetism - you're good to go on to the next paragraph. If not, keep heating, keep bellowing. I know this part is a wanker.

Get yourself a bucket and fill it with cooking oil - this is pricey but will last years and you'll need it later anyway. Using the chain (being careful not to burn yourself) lift it up and dunk it into the oil. There will be flames. Wait about a minuet and then pull it out. Hopefully it's still in once piece.

At this point you have to use your oven - another wanker of a step. - throw your I beam in there on Gas mark 5 (like 220 degrees) and leave it there for hours, I'm thinking about 4 or 5. Turn the over off and let it cool over night. This is now hardened. Well done.

If you really don't want to do this step, you can dodge it and just use the I beam.

To place your 'anvil' you want to get it on something that won't shift when you hit and won't crack either.

If you stand naturally, arm at your side, the heigh of your hand is wear you want to top of your 'anvil'.

I used some bolted timber, this one's up to you, what ever works. If you used the I-beam path then you have the problem of making it stand well. All I can say is good luck coming up with something. I should say you want to So that's the forge/Anvil >50$ set up.

• Brick forge - $0
• Charcoal / Coal $10
• Oil bucket - $20
• Railway / shitty I-beam Anvil - $0
• Hair dryer Bellows - $10

• That first project.*

I know this sounds a bit harder than maybe tongs or something but it'll teach you everything you need to know for all kinds of blacksmithing, not just bladesmithing. (You need tongs too)

Get your hands on some steal, I don't care how or where. You can buy steal off line or you can use just random steal you've found. (Leaf springs from cars work well for larger projects like swords)

Cut your steal to size using a circular saw if you have one, If you don't, green text.

• Heat up as much of the bar as possible (using bellows)
• Place a Thin bit of steal at the right length, at right angles to
• Hammer the thin part in.
• Repeat until you can 'snap' the heated steal.

Now you have the right size bar, get the fire started and heat it up, using the 'bellows'. Take it to the 'anvil' and hammer the shit out of it. This parts pretty brute - just get the shape right flatten out the blade part and square up the handle.

Take care not to snap the steal, never hammer if you're unsure if it's hot enough, don't waste your effort this far for a few $ of charcoal. Now you have the general shape it gets harder - much harder.

Working on the handle now, you want to, as seen in the picture, extend the handle, getting thinner all the way. Feeling confident? green text.

• Heat the handle up like a mother fucker.
• Get two Wrenches/ Grips
• One at the top of the handle - one at the bottom
• Twist in opposite directions to create a spiral in the handle.

With the handle being about 250% larger than you want it to be, bend it back on it's self as seen in the picture. TAKE CARE - Don't go folding the handle towards the blade, I do that shit all the time.

Once you get that handle curve finished you need to do something with that point. I go with a swirly look but if you don't feel confident doing that you can fold it back using grips/ Wrenches.

Handle finished! (If it's too big/ small undo the bend before trying again and heat it up more than usual, need to get rid of any stresses)

The blade is pretty tricky. First of all you need to shift it forwards, the reason? You'll see when you do it, not convinced? Green text, I guess. >When you make the bevels the steel at the edge will be thinner >So when you hammer it down the thinner steel will spread out more than the ticker steel >This will make the blade fold backwards (Like a schimitar, I guess)

A bit like the shape in my picture but you'll need it about the same amount as the desired curve, just added on to the original... Fuck it, i don't even know how to describe this.. about as much as you can bent a ruler with out it snapping should be fine.

Now you need to be careful here... Holding the knife at an angle of 5 - 15 degrees to the 'anvil' hammer down, close to the edge. This'll take a while and isn't worth rushing. Take care to keep the angle you hold it to the anvil the same each time and not to hit the blade into the anvil, but against it. (To avoid it folding over on it's self)

This part will be easier once you're behind the wheel - just think logically bearing in mind that the thinner steal will spread more.

Once you have the general blade shape - clean it up as much as you can. Level out the back, if you like and try to make the tip look presentable.

I'll do the heat treating now. This next separates 'knife' and 'lump of steal' The heat treating.

If you fancy cheating a bit and giving it a once over on the bench ginder, do that now.

For heat treating what you need to do is throw your knife in the forge and wait until it glows all over. The blade is the most important part to get hot. When you think you have it hot enough pull it out and let it cool down slowly at air temp. This will remove any built up stresses in the blade (The handle curve and that)

Throw it back it, get it way hot again, pull it out and using a magnet (neodymium is suggested) stuck to your grips test to see if it sticks to the blade at all. If the blade is at all magnetic put it back in.

Once there is no magnetism stick it back in for two more minuets and ready yourself for the biggest wanker of all. Grab that knife and dip it in your oil, nice and quick - don't let any part of it cool down faster than the rest. provided you do it right it should be ok - it may shatter if you're too slow dipping it in. Hold it in there nice and long - 20 seconds. 

It's now a sheet of glass. That shit touches anything it will break. 

Take it up to your kitchen and wrap it in some tin foil, nice and tight. Pre-heat your oven to 210 - 230 and place it in there for about 2 hours.  Pull it out and let it cool naturally. You have your self a knife, all be it a blunt one.

You can sharpen it on an oil stone, then a wet stone, then a strop. Or you can cheat a bit like I do and get it on the grinder and then strop it.

A Lanyard on the handle can add a few mm on if it's a bit small.  If it's too big you can tie a lanyard really tight around it and pull it in a bit - it should be a bit flexible.

All done!