When I first started blacksmithing, all my blacksmithing tools were in the garage that is attached to our house. I would roll the coal forge out on to the driveway and try to get in whatever time I could in the mornings to do some blacksmithing before the sun started to beat down on the driveway and into the garage making it too hot and miserable to work.
Overall it worked out fine, most of the time. But when the kids wanted to be out on the driveway to play and ride their bikes while I was blacksmithing, things became dangerous. They would run around between me and the anvil or forge and just wouldn’t stay away. Our daughter almost had a hot metal rod in her face one day and that was when I knew something had to be done to protect myself and our kids from unwanted serious accidents.
The area for blacksmithing is not a playground and I hated the idea that they couldn’t be kids and play on the driveway when I was out there at the forge. They wanted to be where I was at and I love their company.
After some serious thought and some planning, we decided that it would be best if we made a new area for the forge that is outside of the garage and in an area where the kids can still play and somewhat be where I am at, but not where it could cause harm to them.
We came up with the idea of a nice spot behind our four foot high wood fence that I could use as a part of the wall and is also shaded by large pine trees in the afternoon.
The current smithy I have now we built earlier last year and was the best decision we made for the safety of our kids. And we do not have to worry about me accidentally burning down the house!
In the garage, I did not have a water hose available. At one time, I had a fire extinguisher, but that needs to be replaced.
The new location has cooler temperatures because of all the shade, has walls and gates to reduce unwanted access, and had much nicer views.
The Little Rustic Smithy:
This may not be the best looking structure, but it is what you get when it is piecemealed together. It is not one hundred percent complete yet, and it is hard to say if it will ever be complete.
At the new smithy, I now have a dual hose bib that we installed. This has made it very convenient for filling up the quenching bucket and it is great knowing that a very reliable water source is just right outside the wall if things get out of control.
It took a couple weekends to build this smithy and there is still a few more things that I would like to do to it to make it more complete and pleasant looking.
The overall size is approximately 8 feet deep x 12 feet wide and is about 7 feet 7 inches high at the peak and 7 feet 3 inches at the low end.
The overall width was determined by the size of the two chain link gates I had on hand. They are drive gates, so the size made it nice for the front of the smithy. Both gates have shade fabric to help conceal the tools inside from prying eyes outside the property. I open up both of the drive gates and they swing nearly ninety degrees from the smithy. This is nice because it discourages the kids from running into where I am working.
The length of the sides were determined by two wood fence panels that we obtained when we a friend of ours took down their wood fence and they let us take what ever we wanted. Originally the wood fence panels and boards were gathered for birdhouses that I would make. (I need to get back into making the birdhouses, I miss that hobby).
The corner posts are made with 4×4 pressure treated posts cemented into the ground. I probably should have gone with 6×6, but it should be perfectly fine as built. The fence panels fit right between the posts.
One benefit of having the four foot wood fence as a part of the back wall is that I was able to make two flip up doors to allow a lot more air circulation inside the smithy. It also really opens up the space and allows for nice views all around.
The two flip up doors were made from some extra fence boards and chain link fence top rails and brackets. All extra parts that I had laying around. They are held open with a #3 rebar that I forged into shape on a custom bent hinge, again from left over fence parts, and the rebar rests in a small pipe that I mounted to the outside of the wood fence. They are opened from the inside of the smithy. There is a flip latch on the inside to keep them closed when not in use.
The roof was pretty much the biggest purchase of this whole thing. We bought the two wood headers, all the roof joist brackets, and all the corrugated metal panels. We scrounged up some old 2×4’s for the roof joists, some of them were warped some, but we made them work.
I left the floor as native dirt and it has worked out just fine.
All this has given the smithy a pretty good rustic look at a fairly affordable price.
The Forge:
Okay, so this custom forge might be a little embarrassing to share, but the darn thing works!
When I first thought about getting into blacksmithing, I needed a forge to heat things up in. My father-in-law helped me with the idea on this and we started one day after we were out visiting some garage sales and came across this old three legged barbecue on the side of the road in a pile of free stuff.
He had some steel pipes and fittings, along with a break drum that he let me have for the forge. We drilled a hole in the bottom of the barbecue for the pipe to fit through. The break drum sits inside the barbecue with sand all around it and the pipe is held in place with a pipe flange. The sand helps keep the bottom of the barque from burning out.
We added a pipe T and cap at the bottom. The cap is used to remove the junk that falls through from above.
The one thing that was bought for this forge is the hair dryer. I didn’t have an extra one on hand so I bought the cheapest I could find at Target for a few bucks.
Well, I guess I also bought the electrical junction box, electrical outlet, plate cover, and dimmer switch to control the air flow from the hair dryer. All this was still pretty cheap in the whole scheme of things.
The hood is made from the barbecue lid. It is supported from the base by a piece of aluminum sheet that an old coworker of mine found on the side of the road and thought that I could probably use it for something. We believe it came from a semi truck. It took a little work to make it round like the barbecue, but we got it to work out.
I cut a couple slots on the bottom so that I can run longer stock through to heat up in the forge.
The smoke stack was a piece of 8 inch duct, but recently up-sized to a 10 inch. These were purchased as well, but again, they are not expensive.
The base of the forge is made from some scrap particle board I had on hand. I had some extra wheels that I used so it can be rolled in and out of the garage when I wanted to start up the forge. This is still set up like this in the dirt, as you can see, but it was meant to be a temporary setup at this new location until I can determine everything works, which is does.
If you ask me, this whole forge contraption is kind of funny looking, but it works and it didn’t cost me an arm and a leg for something that I had no idea that I would stick with doing. I hope to one day upgrade this forge, but this is it for now.
The Forge Fuel:
The forge was built to run on coal. Some blacksmiths prefer gas, but I cannot say which is best because I have not yet tried a gas forge. With coal, you can create a cave to heat your metal in and it gets supper hot. I kind of like the smell of the coal forge too.
To help reduce the cost of my usage of coal, I occasionally add Cowboy Charcoal to the fire. This works pretty good and is acceptable for most of the projects that I work on. I have not yet tried forge welding with it yet, so I do not know if it gets hot enough for that process. It has reached temperatures high enough to where the metal would burn, so maybe it does get to the right temperatures for forge welding.
The one downside of the Cowboy Charcoal is the amount of sparks that shoot out when the air stream hits it. Wearing safety glasses is a must!
The Anvil:
The anvil I have is a farriers anvil. It was picked up at a garage sale for a pretty nice price, and it included the stand. Is it the most ideal anvil? Not really, but it does the job that I need it to do. My biggest complaint of this anvil is where the hardy hole is located. It is on the “Table” of the anvil, which makes it too close to the edge of the “Face” of the anvil for some hardy tools and other uses of the hardy hole. Sometimes I wish the horn was a little more cone shaped. Other than that, the face is in really good condition and it has been a good anvil.
The Post Vise:
This monster was given to me as a gift. My father-in-law helped build me the stand that it currently sits on from a brake drum that came from a fire engine, a steel pipe, and a nice steel plate. He is now retired, but used to work in the auto-shop for the fire department. He had pretty good access to some nice parts like this brake drum.
A sturdy stand or mounting the post vise to a heavy work bench is a must. The post vise will be used for all kinds of tasks, including bending metal and hammering hot steel, so having it well anchored will reduce the amount of movement that could occur during these tasks.
The Second Post Vise:
This is my most recent addition, again given to me as a gift. I felt the need to one more vise, especially when there is more than just myself working in the smithy. This one is smaller than the beast above and it is mounted directly to the workbench.
It needed a new spring so we made one from an old leaf spring. There are some modifications that will be made to the spring one day to make it work better, but it still does the job, for now. I will also want to put the base of the post vise into the ground to prevent it from moving around. Right now it just sits on top of the pressure treated 2×6, which is not the correct way to support the vise.
The Wood Bench:
Some time ago, Joy and I picked up these large wood blocks from a garage sale. I have no idea what we were thinking at the time, other than that they probably looked cool. We never really found a use for them until now. These are buried down into the ground, maybe six inches or so, so they do not move much.
The top is from an old wood beam I came across for free one day. It is bolted down to the large wood blocks below so that it does not slide around when using the post vise that is attached to it.
Various Tools
There are quite a few tools the blacksmith uses to achieve various tasks. Hammers, tongs, hardy tools, files, punches, drifts, and many more. Each and every tool assists with a certain task and some tools are specifically made for a particular project. Back in the day, the blacksmith would make most, if not all, of his tools. Now we can find many in the stores and at garage sales.
The image below shows just a few hardy tools that are used. There are many more that can be added to the collection.
When it all comes down to the end, the whole cost of all this has been very reasonable, thanks to free supplies and the wonderful gifts.
Conclusion
Well, that is basically all there is. This structure will most likely be modified over time for different setups and different tools or for an even more efficient layout. Time will tell, but for now it works great when there is one, two, or even three of us working in here at the same time, although it does take some extra precaution when there are more than one in here.
Metal Supplies
You can read about where I find my metal here: Collecting Materials for Projects.
Do you have a setup created for yourself? What is it like? Please share with us in the comments below.