Getting Started in Blacksmithing: Tools & Equipment You Will Need

Introduction

So you want to get started in blacksmithing and have been looking into what tools are necessary without spending thousands of dollars. Blacksmithing is a wonderful hobby if you like working with your hands, getting dirty, being creative, and handy but you also don’t want to just jump into this hobby without knowing what the costs would be to get started.

Tools can be expensive, very expensive. One of the great things about blacksmithing is that you can also be creative with the tools you have or don’t have. For example, an anvil can run around $100 to a few thousand dollars, or you can find something that can act as an anvil for free or very little money compared to an actual anvil. I will explain this a little more a bit later.

Many tools can also be made by the blacksmith, such as hammers and chisels. It all takes time and practice to make them a quality tool, but in reality all it takes is a makeshift tool to get the job done. It may not last as long as one made with high quality steel, but it could be a start.

The point here is that not everyone has the luxury in buying all the tools they want when starting a new hobby. Some of us need to start off with makeshift items. In this article, I will be sharing with you the essential tools and equipment that a beginner may consider in obtaining to start blacksmithing without spending thousands of dollars.

Essential Tools and Equipment for Beginners

There are a few essential tools that you will need to get started. However, let’s be upfront here…there are some archaic methods of using tools that I don’t necessarily recommend but will mention some of them just to give you an idea for imagination.

Anvil

The anvil is a tool typically made of steel and usually has a fairly large flat working surface. It can be cast steel, cast iron, or even forged steel. They come in many shapes and sizes. Some have horns on one side, both sides, or not included at all. Some anvils have a round hole called a pritchel hole, and a square hole called a hardy hole. Each have their purpose.

The anvil is used as a working surface to help shape the material while it is being hammered upon for forging, shaping, and bending metal. Different tools can be added to the hardy hole to make this tool even more versatile.

Anvils can cost anywhere from just below $100 to a few thousand dollars. However, this is for your typical anvil like those you use to see in different Acme cartoons like the Road Runner. You don’t necessarily need to start off with one like that if you can’t afford it at this time. Instead, see if you can find yourself a short length of railroad. You may be able to find one at a garage sale. I have one that my son uses quite often when we both are out forging something and I am hogging the other anvil. A large chunk of steel, rectangular or cylindrical, may also work short term.

Here is a nice railroad piece that is being used as an anvil. You can find these in different sizes. Some people turn them on end to get more mass under the hitting face. This one is mounted to a large 12″ square wood block that is embedded in the ground. Although you can’t see them here, I have horseshoe hooks on the two opposing sides to hold hammers or other tools.

This is my go to anvil. As you see, it is sits on a metal stand that has a few spots to hold punches, hold-downs, a hammer, and tongs. You can see the hardy hole and two pritchel holes. This one would cost much more than the railroad anvil, but you can find them at garage sales for a really good price like I did with this one.

Forge

Just as there are as many anvils, there are probably just as many types of forges. Forges come in many shapes and sizes, including those that are made for coal and others made for gas. You will have to decide here what would be best for you. Without going into great detail here, coal forges can be smelly to your neighbors, while a gas forge typically burns much more cleaner and less annoying to your neighbors.

Coal forges can be built with brick, sheet steel, or cast iron. I have seen some made with wood that are lined with fire brick or other fire resistant material. Some people have built forges in the ground by digging a pit and running a pipe to the side of the fire to provide a flow of air.

Gas forges are usually made with a metal box or cylinder of some sort and are lined with a fire resistant material. Gas forges can be less expensive than a coal forge (unless you make your own coal forge from scrap – more on that in a minute). You can build your own gas forge, but that is not always cheaper than buying new.

You can also spend a large chunk of money on a forge, but you can get creative and build your own for less. As mentioned above, it can be as simple as digging a hole in the ground and running a pipe to the side of the pit to provide a flow of air. It’s not the most ideal type of forge, but in a pinch, it could work.

The forge I started with and still use today is made from a three-legged BBQ that we found in a free pile on the side of the road. I converted the lid to be a part of the hood, drilled a hole in the bottom for cast iron pipe (tuyere) to deliver air to the fire, installed a brake rotor with sand around it so the fire doesn’t burn through the BBQ. The air is provided by a very inexpensive blow dryer that is plugged into an electrical outlet controlled by a dimmer switch.

Here is my forge, the one I described above. It is still sitting on the wood base with wheels from when I had it mobile in the garage. You can read more about this forge in the article “The Little Rustic Smithy“.

Getting creative with the design of your forge can be fun and save you some cash. One day you may want to upgrade to something more efficient but it could be a nice start. There are also some very inexpensive gas forges on the market these days.

Fuel

We can’t leave out the fuel. If you didn’t have fuel, you wouldn’t have a fire to heat the forge.

Depending on the forge you choose, you will either be using a gas such as propane or a solid fuel such as coal. A gas forge typically using propane and is a prefered type of forge for many blacksmiths. Many other blacksmiths also prefer a coal forge over gas. It really is a personal preference and can vary little depending on what you plan on making most of. For example, even though I have not made them myself, a gas forge would probably be best for making knives since you can more easily control the temperature without burning the steel.

If you are using a coal forge, the coal can get a little pricey depending on the source you get it from. Coal is also not always easily obtainable in certain areas. However, you don’t always have to use coal. Check out the article I wrote “Types of Fuel for a Coal Forge“. This should give you a good idea on other types of fuel you can use.

There are other ways of heating up steel for your projects, such as using an induction forge. These could be nice for long straight pieces but are usually pretty pricey. I probably would not recommend one for starting off.

Hammer

Just like the anvil and forge…can you guess? Yes, there are probably just as many styles of hammers. Hammers come in all kinds of shapes and sizes and each type have a particular purpose. And yes, you can spend just a few dollars to a couple hundred dollars on a good quality hammer.

For blacksmithing, you can use a cross pein hammer or a ball pein hammer. I recommend you find yourself 1.5 pound to 2 pound cross pein hammer and grind down the sharp edges that are on the face of the hammer. Any sharp edge will leave marks on your work that may be undesirable. Try to stick with a wood handle, if possible.

The cross pein hammer gives you two sides to work with giving you more ways to move metal around.

This is a blacksmiths hammer, my favorite of all time. It was forged by another blacksmith and we got a good deal on it only because he double stamped his trademark on accident. Notice the hammer face edges are rounded? This reduces the amount of markings that are left behind. The other face is a little more round which helps move the hot material around faster.

Tongs

You guessed it…tongs come in many shapes and profiles. Beginning to see something in common here with these tools? Can you guess why tongs come in so many shapes and sizes? Yup, they each serve a particular purpose. In fact, blacksmiths would make tongs for a particular project, even if they never use those tongs again.

Tongs need to be able to hold the work piece firmly so the work piece does not fly out of the tongs and injure you or someone nearby. You may have tongs that look very similar to each other, but have wider jaws for larger work pieces.

Think about what you want to focus on making. Are they knives? There are tongs specifically made for safely holding knives. Or do you want to make objects with with 1/4″ round or square stock? Flat stock? Railroad spikes? Try to narrow it down so that you can pick up one, two, or maybe three sets of tongs for the work you want to perform.

If you don’t want to buy tongs, you can always make a pair yourself using the forge, anvil, punch or drill, and hammer. They can be made with rebar, round stock, or square stock. Check out YouTube for some awesome videos on how to make tongs. You usually don’t need tongs to make tongs because the material you are making them with tend to be long enough to where the part you hold onto won’t be too hot to hold.

Here is a pair of tongs I use the most and fit well for 3/8″ stock. They are occasionally stamped on the reins the size they were made for.

A few tongs for different uses and materials. A busy blacksmith could easily have a hundred different styles.

Chisels and Punches

Chisels are always nice to have on hand for cutting and adding decorative patterns into your work. Because chisels can be fairly inexpensive, determine if you work may need them and pick up a variety of styles…large and small, straight and curved.

Punches can be used in place of drilling holes. They can be more efficient than drilling since there is typically much less waste than drilling because the hot metal is moved to the sides rather than cut away.

If you don’t want to buy chisels or punches, you can always make your own with standard steel, which usually won’t last as long because they are too soft but still can be useful, or a stronger steel such as spring steel, which is a common material for making chisels and punches. There is a process with making these correctly and I recommend learning about it if you want to make quality tools.

Some chisels and a couple punches. I try to collect these when I can even if they are the same as others because you can always modify these into a different style when needed.

Various punches and drifts. The drifts are used to make and enlarge holes. Some of these punches are for making eye balls when I want to make faces. Some of these are also fullers.

Wire Brushes

Wire brushes come in handy on every project. They are used for removing scale from the work piece after it has come out of the forge and to help clean it up when it is near completion. You can also get brass brushes to give your work a brass finish. It’s a pretty cool process to see.

A brush like this one or similar is very handy to have at the anvil. I use it each time I forge to remove scale.

A few different wire brushes. The one on the far left is brass and can be used to add a brass color finish to the finished work piece.

Files

Files can be used to help shape the metal and to help clean it up. I use files mostly to remove sharp edges that are left after cutting. They are nice to have on hand when you need them.

Protective gear

Pick up a pair of safety glasses to protect your eyes from flying debris. No matter what your work area is, this is a necessity. You will be hammering and scale will fly off or metal may chip off the hammer or working stock and go flying. You might even be grinding, filing, or cutting steel. All of this can be hazardous.

You may even want to protect your hearing from all the metal being pounded on. This can sometimes create very loud ringing noises and can damage your hearing.

Proper clothing should be considered as a necessary safety requirement, but sometimes you have to stay a little cooler. Some people say you should at least wear pants instead of shorts so that the hot scale doesn’t fall into your shoes, burning your foot. My experiences have shown that the scale cools off quick enough to where it isn’t a big deal. What is worse is if you are working with something small that is red hot and it falls in between your shoe and sock. It’s better to be safe.

You should also have some sort of way to extinguish a fire if flames get out of control. A water hose nearby is good to have and of course a fire extinguisher.

Additional Tools and Equipment

While the tools listed above are essential, there are other tools that can be useful. Here is a partial list of those tools.

Vise

Here is another tool that comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. Most of the vises you see on the market today are bench vises. Some of them have a small anvil face on the back side of the jaws. This is okay for very small work. I would recommend against using heavy hammer blows when using the vise jaws as this process can break the vise.

Blacksmiths have a special kind of vise they use called a post vise or leg vise. This vice has a leg that extends all the way down to the ground which helps transfer the forces to to the ground. These vices are also designed to take more beating at the jaws than the typical bench vice.

This is one post vice and is the beast of the two I have. These are much more different and more heavy duty than your typical bench vice.

These post or leg vices can be pricey, but you keep an eye out for them at garage sales. They still may not be cheap, but they are a great addition to your workspace.

Quenching Bucket

A bucket full of water is nice to have on hand when you need to quickly cool down the end of the working piece. However, if you are looking into making specialty items, such as knives, you may need to consider using oil or other quenching material that does not cool down the metal as fast. Know what you are getting into so that you can make the appropriate choice in quenching material, but the least should include water.

A quenching bucket full of water is nice to have on hand along with a quenching ladle to help control the fire in a coal forge. If you let your fire get too large in a coal forge, you will be wasting the fuel.

Grinder

You can use a bench top grinder to clean up the ends of cut off pieces. An angle grinder may be more affordable and will allow you to get into more awkward angles and it is portable. Flap disks for an angle grinder work great!

Drill Press or Electric Hand Drill

A drill press would be nice if you are doing a lot of precision work, but again, they can cost a lot.

Instead, I tend to use a cordless drill for a lot of the small holes I need for keychains. This also comes in handy when I want to wire-wheel the finished piece to clean it up.

Metal Cutting Tools

You may need something to cut metal down to size. It can be a hot cut hardy or a cold cut hardy that will fit into the hardy hole of the anvil. These tools can actually be faster at cutting than your typical saw. However, if you don’t have an anvil that has a hardy hole, the hardy tool may prove to be worthless to you. Depending on where you find one of these hardy tools, they could be pricier than a hack saw.

Hack saws are an inexpensive tool and are fairly safe to use. This would be my recommendation to start off.

Another option for cutting could be a chop saw with an abrasive disk, but these too can be fairly pricey.

Conclusion

We have covered various tools in this article. Some are more essential to starting off than others. At the bare minimum, you will need an anvil, forge, fuel, hammer, and maybe tongs. Don’t forget the protective gear to protect yourself and your workspace. You can always start off with the basics and build up your arsenal of tools as you progress and learn what you truly need. There are many more tools for blacksmithing than what I have covered here, but this was about the basics to help you get started.

I encourage you to start the blacksmithing journey if it is something that interests you. Watch YouTube videos to learn more about this trade and how to perform certain tasks. You can also take a blacksmithing course if one is offered within reach for you. And of course, read the articles we have here on this blog. We are constantly adding more content that you can learn from along with us.

There is a lot of information out there on how to make projects. Books are another great resource. Lucky for you, I have already acquired a nice collection of books on blacksmithing and have provided my recommendations on which books I suggest you start off with. You can check them out here at “Getting Started in Blacksmithing: The Best Books for Beginners“.

So there you have it. Now go get started and make something awesome!

Rick Simper has various hobbies, including woodworking, metalworking, composting, and gardening. He is an Architect full time and uses these hobbies to get away from the busy week of Architecture.