And you don't have to poke around long to find dozens of Web sites offering friendly-even passionate-advice from artisans, along with equipment ranging from anvils and tongs to air-driven power hammers.įirst, I needed a forge. Some people estimate there are more blacksmiths in this country today than there were during the 1800s. The Artist-Blacksmith's Association of North America counts a membership of 4000 hobbyists and professionals. Maybe it's because our smokestack industries are in decline that a rising number of Americans feel the need to get their metalworking fix in home workshops. It wasn't hard to finally decide to take another step, and teach myself some blacksmithing skills.
I grew up in rural Connecticut among Yankee mechanics who could forge anything, machine anything, build anything, fix anything-and I've been trying to live up to those old-timers' standards all my life. My father is a metallurgist, descended from generations of 19th-century blacksmiths and born in Germany to shipbuilders whose forges scattered sparks over the shores of the Elbe River and the North Sea. But I couldn't shape it, and so large swaths of the mechanical realm were off-limits to me.īut blacksmithing never felt alien. I've bolted metal together, welded it and soldered it. Over the years, I have been frustrated by my inability to work hot steel.
How to install my little blacksmith shop full#
Without it, you'll never gain full mastery over this stubborn material. With it, you can make the toughest metal submit to your will.
If you want to work with metal, there's one thing you have to confront: You need heat. Master skills, get tool recommendations, and, most importantly, build something of your very own. POP Projects is a collection of new and classic projects from more than a century of Popular Mechanics.
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