Getting the "smithy" set up....

M

Mark Redmon

Joined
Nov 7, 2007
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451
I've been wanting to get in to the forging side of knifemaking for a while now, and I finally took the plunge.. I worked all day Saturday re-arranging the shop and building the stands for the anvil and forge. The anvil is a 146# Fisher-Norris from 1887 and the forge is a Diamondback Ironworks 2 burner knifemakers forge. The Fisher has seen a little abuse, but I think it's usable. It's flat, and has an ok corner on one side, the other is fairly rounded with some chips. I've got an old part of an anvil vise I think I'm going to mount up to have something with shaarp corners available, but we'll see what I can do with this first. The anvil stand is made from 56 14" 2x4's screwed and glued. The forge stand is an old Chatsworth 2 post 19" rack for telco/data equipment. Not the prettiest setup in the world, but it's mine :D I've been beating on some 1080 and am starting to get something that vaguely resembles a knife... maybe I can work out the kinks in the next day or two. You guys that forge day after day have my respect! Anyway, here's the pix:

Anvil1.jpg

Anvil2.jpg
 
Looks like fun, Mark. I've been set up for forging for a while but haven't made the time to do a whole lot with it. I think as long as the anvil is flat that's 90% of the battle. Rounded edges on the anvil are useful for some things, so that doesn't sound like much of a problem.

Let's see some pics of the fruits of your labors!
 
P J 234 said:
Let's see some pics of the fruits of your labors!
Click to expand...

Well, I was going to wait until I had more done on it, but here's where I'm at.... it's pretty embarrassing, but I guess we all start somewhere....:o I still have a lot to do on it, so don't judge me too harshly. It's coming along.... yesterday, It kinda looked like it should be in a viagra ad. I definitely didn't give it enough counter-bend, but that's a lesson learned I suppose. I still need to draw the edge out where the tang starts and square the tang shoulders... It's not going to be pretty, but I'm determined to finish it...

forged.jpg
 
Barkes Knife Shop said:
Nice setup on the anvil stand. Be safe in there. :thumbup:
Click to expand...

Thanks! I've got 3 fire extinguishers in the shop and about 3.5 gallons of water. There's a window about 6 ft behind the heel of the anvil, so I've been keeping that open along with keeping the garage door up about 2 ft..... but one can never be too careful.
 
I was gonna mention counterbend to fix that "buffalo skinner" shape, but I see you know about that. I started out on an OLD 150# Fisher, I really love those anvils because they have great rebound and low noise factor. The edges on mine were like that too, probably because an anvil with such a hard face will tend to chip out at the corners. Even real old Fishers don't usually have much swayback, since the cast iron construction backs up that tool steel plate better than the soft wrought in an English style anvil...

Try hanging the tang and ricasso off the side of the anvil and carefully using the side of the cross pein to draw the edge down at your plunge area. I don't know, I think a forge and anvil setup are real "pretty" any day!

I'll be curious to hear if that Diamondback forge runs nice and gets good welding heats.
 
Looks good to me for a first try, Mark. The important thing is that you had fun (and didn't burn any structures down!) I have found in the few I have forged that I was pre-bending too much, so I think that part is just about experience.

If you haven't already, check to see if you have a local blacksmithing organization. I took a couple of classes through mine, and the guys (even if not bladesmiths) were extremely helpful in getting me started and learning what I needed to be able to forge knives.
 
Very nice setup, Mark! Say...that anvil tie-down looks kinda familiar....;). And I took the idea from a picture I'd seen somewhere on the great wide internet. :) I'll say, it does work well. Great stand and a nice looking little forge to boot.

I'm in the process of gathering ideas and parts to build a PID controlled forge. Not sure of my design yet, but probably horizontal and definitely a 2 stage blown forge. I've got a strong desire to pound out some hot steel!

Congrats on the setup.

--nathan
 
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Thanks Nathan... no sense in re-inventing the wheel is there? Good luck on the forge build:thumbup:


vorpalknives said:
Try hanging the tang and ricasso off the side of the anvil and carefully using the side of the cross pein to draw the edge down at your plunge area. I don't know, I think a forge and anvil setup are real "pretty" any day!

I'll be curious to hear if that Diamondback forge runs nice and gets good welding heats.
Click to expand...

I'll give that a shot... hopefully I can work on it a bit tonight. Diamondback says all their forges easily reach welding temps... probably be a while before I test that out, but I've been running the forge at about 3-4 psi, and I get from a black heat to forging temps again in just a few seconds (maybe 10-15).

Paul, That's good advice... Fitzo (Mike Fitzgerald) sent me some links to local blacksmithing organizations, and I'll be following up with them soon. Theres an IVBA conference about 10 miles north of me in July that I'll probably check out.
 
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