Introduction
Blacksmithing is a very old trade that lost interest as early as around 1960 where many blacksmiths left the trade to pursue something else or retire. Changes in the workplace were taking place and your typical blacksmith was no longer needed due to advancements in technology. In more recent years, people have been showing more interest in blacksmithing as a hobby and some as an actual trade. There are still farrier blacksmiths, which are those who forge the shoes and shoe the horses, but not all farriers forge the shoes.
There are current blacksmiths that have made this trade their full time business, but very few have made it successfully. In most cases, blacksmithing is a hobby, and it is a hobby that you may be able to get into yourself with little investment in cost but there are some considerations that should be taken prior to setting up shop and safety. In this article, I will be giving my opinion on key items you should consider in placement and layout of your work area, along with a few items on safety.
I occasionally see questions from people on social media groups asking how to get started in blacksmithing. Sometimes people over think things and believe they need to have a well fitted shop with many tools and equipment in order to do blacksmithing. This just isn’t true. You can start with just a few tools as I show you in our article “Getting Started in Blacksmithing: Tools & Equipment You Will Need” and a basic setup that I will be explaining to you in the text below.
However, if you want to be smart about it, you cannot necessarily start blacksmithing if you don’t have the proper setup and safety equipment. So lets get to it!
Workspace and Safety
Blacksmithing can be and is a dangerous trade, especially if you are not careful in what you are doing or are not completely aware of your surroundings. This is not a hobby for kids to do on their own without the appropriate supervision. Too much can happen from anyone who is blacksmithing, let alone by someone who does not know what they are doing. Fires can be started for many reasons. People can and will get hurt at some point or another. All this can be minimized if you use common sense and follow certain safety procedures.
Dedicated Workspace
First things first…You need a dedicated workspace to perform your blacksmithing duties. Trust me on this one…IT IS IMPORTANT!
When I first started this blog, I wrote an article called “A Little About My Garage Shop” where I gave an introduction into how all this started for me. Our garage was being used for woodworking, welding, and blacksmithing. It was nice having all the tools in one spot, but one day something almost happened that could have been very bad. I later wrote another article on why I had to create a dedicated workspace for blacksmithing…”The Little Rustic Smithy“. It was a scary moment for me, especially since this incident almost involved our daughter who would have been around four years old then.
This dedicated workspace can be mobile or permanent, but it must be in an area where people don’t need to pass through when you are working. You will need access to a water source, electricity, and it must be clutter free.
Neighbors
There is a saying “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”. This saying is also known as the Golden Rule and it is found in many different religions and cultures. It is a simple but powerful reminder that we should treat others the way we would want to be treated. When we respect our neighbors, we are creating a more peaceful and harmonious community. This is something that seems to have been lost by many in our society today, but it does not mean you or I cannot abide to it and set a better example to others.
If you don’t live in a rural area and have neighbors nearby, you will (or should) consider their comfort when you are working. This trade is noisy and can create smoke that may disturb your neighbors. I personally enjoy the smell of a coal forge, but I do have to admit that there have been times where I have smoked up our yard and house by lighting some good fresh coal, something that not everyone will enjoy.
If smoke may be an issue for your neighbors, you may want to consider a gas forge.
If sound may be an issue for your neighbors, well you can either piss them off and they report you to the authorities or you just piss them off and you be known as the annoying neighbor. I recommend neither and you should either make sure you are far enough away to where the sounds shouldn’t be a concern, or don’t forge at home and find a different remote location. Definitely work during the appropriate hours, say between 8:00 am and 5:00 pm.
If you are blacksmithing full time, you may need to check with your town or city to see if you are even allowed to perform that kind of work at the location you have chosen. There may be other criteria from the local jurisdiction you need to follow for this kind of work.
Fire Safety
Make sure the location you choose would not create a fire hazard when sparks fly, especially if you plan on doing any forge welding. Forge welding will shoot off hot flux in all directions many feet from where you are welding.
- Location – Avoid locations directly under trees unless you have an appropriate roof and chimney so that sparks don’t reach the trees. Some smiths do blacksmithing in their garage (I did) and this is fine as long as you make sure there are no combustible materials around that may catch your home on fire.
- Structure – The roof should be fire proof so that sparks don’t land on it and cause a fire. Avoid wood floors for obvious reasons…hot sparks, hot metal falling to the floor, and so on. Walls should be protected from sparks and heat from the forge (although mine are wood). Floors should be dirt, gravel, brick, or concrete. Dirt is probably best on your body to prevent fatigue because it is softer. The downfall of some dirt floors is that if they are somewhat sandy like mine, you may temporarily lose small tools or small work pieces if they fall. Dirt sucks when you drop your finish piece that was just finished with beeswax or other finishes!
- Fire Extinguishers & Water – Be sure to have a water hose or other fire extinguishing device handy at all times so that if something does catch fire you can quickly put it out.
Work Triangle
Just like when designing a kitchen in a house, you have what is called a work triangle. Your stove, sink and refrigerator are situated for the path that forms a triangle. The sides of this work triangle should total between 13 and 26 feet to reduce the amount of travel between these main work areas and to prevent them from being too close to each other. It is all about comfort and efficiency.
Blacksmithing is no different. The forge, anvil, and vise should be within a few steps from each other so that your red hot steel does not cool down too much by the time your reach the anvil or vise. Next to your forge will be your quenching bucket which is typically filled with water.
Lighting
You may notice that most smithies are darker than your typical metal working shop. Adequate lighting is important for certain tasks so you don’t strain your eyes when filing, grinding, or doing other detailed tasks. However, the work area around your forge and anvil should be a little darker so that you can properly gauge the color temperature of your steel. At a minimum, it should not have artificial light or direct sunlight hitting the red hot steel to where you can’t see the correct color temperature.
Getting a dark area can become problematic when you are forging outside in the sun. Try to provide yourself with some kind of shady spot near the anvil so that you see the color temperature.
Electricity
Unless you are blacksmithing the original way without electricity, you will need to provide power to your work area. This power may be used for the blower on your forge, possible lighting, and some power tools.
Ventilation
It is important to make sure that the ventilation in your blacksmithing shop is adequate. If you do not have good ventilation, you are at risk of various health problems and you don’t want that.
No matter what fuel you choose to burn, be sure to have good ventilation. This includes a chimney on a coal forge and don’t burn propane or coal in an enclosed space! Carbon monoxide is an odorless gas that will kill you. Burning any kind of fuel and heating different metals create toxic gases that are bad for your health.
Good ventilation will also help regulate the temperature in your work area. Having a chimney installed on your forge will allow the heat to escape up and out rather than being released into your work area and making it too hot for you.
There are a few ways you can achieve good ventilation. Here are some of them:
- Install a fan to help circulate the air around the forge.
- Install a ventilation system that will suck in fresh air from the outside and push the bad air out of your shop. If done properly, this should replace most if not all of the interior air with new fresh air. You may need to reach out to a mechanical engineer or someone who knows how to calculate the required air changes for that space.
- Open windows and doors to allow fresh air to enter the shop. If there isn’t a nice breeze, then this still may not be enough
- Work directly outside and not in a shop. Not necessarily the most ideal, but if you can’t afford a shop then this is your best option. After all, you can’t get much better than 100% fresh air circulation, especially if there is a slight breeze.
Ventilation and air exchange! Make sure you have it. You can see how I achieved ventilation and air circulation in the article “The Little Rustic Smithy“.
Don’t burn galvanized steel!
Burning galvanized steel is hazardous because the zinc coating on the steel can vaporize and create toxic fumes. These fumes can cause a variety of health problems, including:
- Metal fume fever: This is a flu-like illness that can occur after inhaling zinc oxide fumes. Symptoms include fever, chills, headache, muscle aches, and fatigue.
- Lung damage: Long-term exposure to zinc oxide fumes can damage the lungs and increase the risk of respiratory problems.
- Cancer: Some studies have suggested that exposure to zinc oxide fumes may increase the risk of cancer. What doesn’t cause cancer?
Metal fume fever should go away on it’s own within 24 to 48 hours if it isn’t too sever. Sometimes hospitalization is necessary if it is bad. If you have been exposed to metal fumes and begin to feel sick, check with your doctor to see what you should do. I am no doctor here so I am not going to recommend anything to imply that you can take care of this yourself.
Sometimes you cannot avoid working with galvanized metal and there are precautions you can you take. These are some of those precautions:
- Wear a proper respirator to filter out the fumes.
- Work in a well-ventilated area.
- Avoid overheating the materials.
- Use proper welding techniques.
- Grind off the zinc coating before welding or cutting the steel.
- Don’t put galvanized steel in the forge!
If in doubt, just don’t do it.
Clutter Free
Not all of us are neat freaks and clean up after ourselves when we are done with a project. I always say if there is an open workbench, it will be covered soon. That is fine and typically is not a real problem. However, the area within your work triangle between the forge, vice, and anvil should always be clear of clutter. When you are moving the hot steel from the forge to either the anvil or vice, you will be paying more attention to your work than your feet.
Try to avoid cluttering up your anvil. You will have some tools at the anvil once in a while, such as punches, chisels, and a hardy tool or two. Try to keep it minimized so that you can quickly find the tool you placed down for that next forging. Anytime you need to stop to look for a tool, the steel is cooling down and that is very valuable time you are wasting.
Safety Gear
Most books you read on blacksmithing will have a section on shop safety. After all, you are reading this because you are interested in getting started in blacksmithing and probably have never forged in your life.
Besides having a dedicated workspace, you will also need a few things for additional safety:
- Safety glasses – Just as you should in any hazardous work areas, wear safety glasses. That’s all I am going to say here since it should be obvious.
- Hearing protection – If your anvil has an extra ring to it when you are hammering on it, you may want to consider hearing protection. That ringing is not good for your ears. There are ways to tone down the ring if you need to. Some people add magnets (I am not too sure if this truly works) to the anvil and others have added metal chains wrapped around the anvil.
- Pants – I recommend wearing pants if you can instead of shorts. Some times it is just too hot out for pants so I elect to wear shorts. There have been a couple times when something really hot has dropped down into my shoe, but it wasn’t too bad. I probably would not recommend shorts if you are forge welding.
- Long sleeve shirts – This one is your call. I personally don’t like wearing long sleeve shirts and don’t mind the occasional hot spark on my arm. The only time I wear long sleeve shirts is during the winter when it is too cold out for me. I included it here because some people say you should wear long sleeves.
- Respirator – You need to protect your lungs as this can be a dirty environment. Do you need to wear it all the time? Probably not. However, if you are doing a lot of cutting on a chop saw, using a wire wheel on rusted metal, or even doing a lot of grinding, you should consider getting a respirator.
- Long Hair – If you have long hair, tie it back if you are using power tools such as drills, grinders, anything with moving parts. This will create a painful disaster for you if your hair gets caught in one of these machines. The same goes for loose clothing.
Anvil Setup
When it comes to the setup of the anvil, there are just a couple small things to consider:
- Height – The height of the anvil should to mounted to where the top face is to the bottom of your fist when you are standing next to it with your hand in a fist.
- Horn direction – This is one that gets questioned once in a while and stirs up a debate for some reason. I have my anvils horn facing to the left when I am standing on the working side (between the forge and the anvil). I recommend facing it in the direction you are most comfortable and in a way that you have less of a chance jabbing your thigh into the end of the horn.
- Tennis Ball – Mentioning jabbing your thigh, I like to cut open an old tennis ball and sticking it on the end of the horn so that nobody gets hurt by walking into it.
End of Day Tasks
At the end of the day or when you are done blacksmithing, do your due diligence and:
- Clean up your work area
- Put tools away where they belong
- Make sure nothing is smoldering
- Check that all hot steel is either cooled down or away from combustible materials. Make sure they are in a location where someone knows they might be hot. Black heat (heat that can’t be seen in the steel because it isn’t red) is still very hot and will cause severe burns.
I am not always good at following all the above items, but the very least, make sure the hot steel is cooled down or away from combustible materials and make sure nothing is smoldering.
Conclusion
Blacksmithing can be a fun and rewarding hobby or a full-time profession for those who are willing to put in the work. When setting up your workspace, it is important to consider safety and location. A dedicated workspace is crucial, and it must be clutter-free, accessible to a water source and electricity, and in an area where people don’t need to pass through when you are working.
Consider your neighbors, as blacksmithing can be noisy and create smoke that may disturb them. Fire safety is also important, so make sure to avoid locations directly under trees, use fireproof roofs and walls, and avoid wood floors. With the proper setup and safety equipment, blacksmithing can be a fulfilling and safe activity.
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.