He hammered it and I did the rest, ain't bad for his first one

This was my first time blacksmithing. I took a Damascus chef’s knife class and I am ridiculously proud of how it turned out. And now I can’t stop thinking about hot metal, hammers and what classes I want to take next. And apparently I may have found my new obsession 😂
If anyone has any recommendations on what classes to take please let me know. I want to learn as much as possible.

Not much to say, back to posting on my favorite subreddit. what y'all think

Working on this chonky pendent commission. Yes, it is heavy for a necklace lol.

Hi all!

Just getting started with blacksmithing and wondering if there are any non-leather aprons that work just as well as leather ones. It's not a huge deal to me, but if it's actually not hard to avoid using leather while still being safe, I'd love to do that.

Thanks!

Hello, ive bought a rivetgun for €20!

But i need some help. I want to forge some dies to put in my rivet gun. But before i do that i need to know what the tool should look like. So I thought it would be a good idea to look at the existing tool that is still in the rivetgun! But i cant seem to find a conclusion. As you can see on the pictures the tool/hammer pin that is now in the rivetgun is flush with what looks like to me a retaining sleve. This does not seem very handy to me because you would have to put the rivetgun dead nuts on the surface of the object you are riveting. It could be that it's for some flat head rivets but still, it seems wiser to protrude the hammer pin and make it a bit more wide wouldn't it? Anyway any help would be greatly appreciated!

Coworker handed me a giant piece of all thread. What do yall think?

On my previous post, claiming that the first forge that I bought, it was the wrong picture. The link below is the correct link to the forge I bought. Sorry for keeping it short. It is currently almost two am here.

I know it's not the best, but i'm just trying to get started. I did some research, and it seemed like this was one of the best for its price.

I have been wanting to do this ever since I was little. If you guys have any tips recommendations or safety precautions, please let me know.

https://a.co/d/0eWdZLjY

First off, I’m sorry for posting many grinders to this sub, I’ve was told to just narrow it down and ask which is better so that’s what I’m doing, I’m debating on these two grinders, which is better? I should specify it’s for making knives

I got started in April this year (2026) and I bought myself a cross peen hammer, a two-burner propane forge, and a 66lb (30kg) anvil. I’ve been determined to make as many of my other tools as I possibly can.

I picked up a couple Harbor Freight ball-peen hammers the other day, with the goal of turning them into handled tools, like punches, chisels, drifts, etc.

But, before I could start those projects, I needed a pair of tongs that could hold onto those hammer heads more securely.

Started with about a foot of 5/8” round bar, and ended up with these! This is my third successful pair of tongs, out of five attempts. Definitely getting more familiar and comfortable with the process, but I also have a long way to go before I can make a professional-looking set. These look functional, though! And that’s what matters, to me.

hand forging all of these axes takes so fricking long. The lugs get cut off and the bevels shall be forged soon. The customer wants 6 tassie splitting heads

I just built my first blown burner based off ChristCenteredIronWork’s build, but my current forge can’t handle the higher temps and I would like to get into forge welding/Damascus etc, can someone either point me in the right direction for where to find plans OR describe to me the materials and the layers they need to be in?

Can I install a thermo-coupler as well for precise temps?

Just got my Chinese 132# anvil mounted and after waiting for my forge walls to dry I couldn't wait any more and needed to forge something. So I slapped on a bbq propane tank and found some scrap metal and tryed to make a leaf. I think i did pretty well but its obvious I need to reshape the faces on the cheap hammers I got from harbor freight. Nest step is to shape the hammers I bought and start building the set of rapid tongs I got from Kens after I make a couple more leaves for good measure for practice 😅

I built one that didnt go very well. I ordered one and I think its nice. It has very good reviews. Im also ordering some other stuff. Any tips for beginners?

Thought I'd post it here aswell since it is a blacksmiths knife, you guys like the furleather or nah? The knife was made from a old nicholson bastard file, using about 80%of the file to make the tang and blade. Quenched in water and tempered at 450 for an hour and half.

I recently bought these and there bit useless as they don’t grab much how would I go about cleaning the jaw up and making it so it’s a tighter fit I’m practising using tongues as I don’t use them much when forging as I forge pretty big things most of the time but I can’t seem to get a handle of it TIA.

I made a railing for my parents its located outdoors so the finish applied is important to preventing rust.

I like a lot as forged with old cooking oil burnt to it but I'm not sure if it would suffice to protect it over the years. Painting it black is another option but I feel like the hammer and chiseled marks would fade a bit with a painted finish. Is applying just varnish an option? Do you have any suggestions?

I’d love to know if they would be profitable enough to continue to make.

I started building some inventory today for a craft show in December at the local library. I still need to drill some holes in the "tangs" and coat them but so far so good. Basically, you attach these to a post or porch column then your hanging basket or whatever will be about 30° - 40° out from there.

Made with basic 1018 steel.