Good forging practice

I

IUBI

Joined
Jan 3, 2000
Messages
170
I was just wondering what good forging practice would be. What metal to forge, a cheap subtituton for an anvil and what's the best/most inexpensive way of getting the metal red hot?

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And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold the great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads...And His tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth; and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
 
i beleive w1 is a fairly cheep steel to forge,it makes an alright blade i guess for your first couple but i`m sure if you tried O-1 tool steel you would be a lot more happy with blade performance.I think w1 is actually the steel used in most files.
an old peice of railroad track works alright for an anvil....thats what i started on ,my first forged blade was O-1 forged on a peice of track!
I use O-1 exclusively except on cable damascus.you can see some blades here.
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=210599&a=1554672

good luck forging and remember.....have fun with it!!
O-1fan


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That which does not kill you, only makes you stronger
 
Coil and leaf springs from vehicles work pretty good. They are, from my understanding, 5160. Good steel for blades. I have a friend of a friend who has a scrap yard, and I get a bunch of them in trade for a blade. I just cut the coils into smaller pieces and use that as practice.

Jamie
a.k.a. Stiletto
 
This may sound a little strange. But the best forging practice for someone new to the manipulation of steel is to take a piece of plain old A-36 hot roll in 1/2" round. Heat and make it square..........then heat and make the part you just squared, round again. This is an exercise that all students who take my basic bladesmithing class go through. It gives a feel for the plasticity of the material at different temps, and also teaches them how to manipulate, and move the metal in the ways they want. Try it, after you go from round to square, and back several times, you will be surprised how quickly you learn to move the material where YOU want it to go.
http://www.mtn-webtech.com/~caffrey

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Ed Caffrey
"The Montana Bladesmith"


 
That seems like it would draw it out rather quickly. Is that part of the intended affect, or is something done to prevent it? I'll be trying it out this weekend. I'd like to get better at forging, right now I waste a lot of heat just pondering how to get it where I want it.

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Oz

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