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There's a video on Youtube of a guy making an axe this way. Took me a while to find it but here it is...

I know I am not a regular poster but I do learn a lot from this site. I am also a member of numerous forums and one thing the majority of them have in common is a feedback section to let potential customers know what type of experience they should expect when dealing with dealers. This is just done out of respect for the forum members since the mods obviously don't want anyone to get ripped off. That being said, it also offers a way for people to publicly thank those that have gone above and beyond in their efforts to satisfy their customers. To not allow feedback is IMHO a mistake, since that offers the perfect breeding ground for unsavory characters to bilk people at their leisure. Feedback simply offers a means of checks and balances. If I was a seller on here, I would certainly want people to know that my products were top quality and that potential customers could expect top notch service. At some point during the two years this has been going on, it seems that an email could be sent at the very least. $2000 is a lot of money to miss and respect dictates that the customer be kept informed. I know that I have had many bad experiences in my life but none of them has ever consumed every waking moment as a time span such as this. The only excuse would be my own personal death. I'm sure that at some point in two years I could take a minute or two and fire off an email. I digress. I'm sure that the parties in question are both honorable people and I'm sure that there is an explanation for the continued absence of products and money, at least in the eyes of those involved. As far as whether to leave the post up or not, I don't think it really matters. Two years is a very long time and sooner or later someone will have to cave in. Updating a thread that people are obviously actively connected to isn't a bad thing regardless of how the conversations degenerate. Mods can delete posts as well as threads and it is well within the scope of reason to delete posts that are counter-productive while leaving the thread intact for those that are following the progression of events. I'm sure that there are more than the original two that are emotionally involved by this point and would like to see this come to some sort of resolution. I myself have no stake in the proceedings here as I am not affiliated with either party, but I would like to know that if the time comes when I want to purchase something from someone, I will be dealing with someone that is well respected, always honors requests, and has earned no negative feedback. Everyone who sells online will eventually get negative feedback from someone that can't be pleased but the only way to know if it was earned or not is to allow grievances to be posted. I think every online outlet for dealers should be required to provide feedback as that's the best way to know if your hard earned trust (and money) is safe.

You should join, he's got a members area with some great videos plus his sense of humor is awesome. I noticed last night that he has added a new chat area which seems pretty cool. Lots of idea tossing going on in there. He also has lots of videos on Youtube and Spikedhumor too. Definitely worth the watch.

If anyone is interested, I've been checking out Purgatory Ironworks website, and it is great. Trent has setup online videos to teach people about blacksmithing and he does a live feed once a week, really great stuff. Very informative. He also takes the time to talk with noobs like me and explain things in a clear way. REally a top shelf site and a great guy. The addy is http://www.purgatoryironworks.com/

Well, it is a crapper, I suppose that would only be appropriate huh lol. That's a pretty good idea though, I might have to give that a shot.

That's a great idea. I might try filling it with sand. I'm actually having a lot of fun with this already. The comments are great, keep em coming lol

LOL gotta love it. As big as it is, I'm thinking it would take a lot of refractory material to make the space inside small enough to heat economically. Being new to all this, I'm not sure exactly what I would have to do to get this thing up to heat. Any ideas on how to make this thing work?

I think I'll stick with the handle my hammer came with but I thought about getting another one (it was only $7) and pulling the handle out and making a wooden one that is a bit shorter than the one I have.

That's what I was thinking. I'm not really sure what possibilities exist since I don't have a lot of experience with this sort of thing. I've been using a brake rotor for a forge burning coal that I've found in my yard and I also made a small two brick forge that I use two small propane torches to heat but I would really like to make a decent size gas forge that I can get up to welding heat. Gas just really makes me nervous being so unforgiving of mistakes and all.

Sorry, the pics didn't load

I got it out of the woods and got some pics. Hope this helps. I can't imagine throwing this thing out. The walls are over half an inch thick so it's got to be good for something anyway.

I have a cast iron pot that I was thinking about making a forge out of. When I say pot, that's only partially accurate. It's actually the stool from an old privy that was in my backyard. Thanks to some armadillos, I was forced to tear the slab out that it was sitting on. I also got two leaf springs out of the slab. I'm guessing rebar wasn't readily available to the people that built it lol. So I was wondering if this pot would make a good forge and if not, what can I do with it. Sitting as it was intended it's about the height of an average toilet bowl, oval in shape with straight sides. Picture a toilet seat that is about a foot and a half tall and made of cast iron. It weighs a ton so it's still sitting in the woods behind the house. I'd like some ideas on what I can do with it. Like I said, my first thought was flip it on it's side and turn it into a forge but I've also thought about filling it with concrete and making it an anvil stand. It's too cool to just leave out in the woods to rust away. Please help!

That's cool. I wasn't sure if it really made a difference. I haven't had any problems with my hammer but I was kind of interested in maybe putting a wooden handle on it eventually. Since it seems to be problem free so far I'll leave it alone till something happens to it. I'll definitely keep an eye out for the fibers too. I don't need anymore discomfort than is absolutely necessary.

I have a really cheap fiberglass handled 3# hammer that I've been using and I was wondering about what difference, if any, the handle material makes. Wooden handles seem to be more popular although I have seen hammers with a steel bar welded onto the head for a handle. I imagine the steel handles will jar your teeth out of your head so I'm not really interested in something like that, but is wood better than fiberglass for shock absorption or vice versa? What are the advantages of each material? I do like the look of a nice hardwood handle but I don't want to fix it if it ain't broke.

I'm certainly no expert on making handles from wood. When I've used it, I can't seem to get the joints to fit tight no matter what I do. But I do know a little about wood and what I do know is that it takes a very long time to season wood properly. I make walking sticks that I let age for a year or more to make sure that most of the moisture is out of them. They also have a tendency to split while they dry but if they are to be used for handles I wouldn't worry about that. Debarking is best done immediately for ease. This causes the aforementioned splits, but like I said, I wouldn't worry about it since you are only using small pieces. After the wood has aged and cured, it should be hard as a rock and difficult to work but it looks really good.

Thanks Willie. I'm really hoping to start an actual blade soon. Till then, I suppose I do need some tools. I'm curious about making tools out of spikes, I'd love to see some and maybe get some idea on which tools I need and how to go about making them. I'm not sure if I am ready to start making precision tools but the practice wouldn't hurt and spikes are easy to get so I wouldn't feel so bad about messing them up. Anybody with ideas, I'd love to hear them.

I should clarify about the saw blades. They are the cheap Wal-Mart type circular saw blades, not the old sawmill type blades. I would love to get a few of those though. I'm sure with any pressure the blades I've made so far would snap like a twig. They've served well so far though.

I know a few already. I've made a few junk knives out of saw blades and they hold up surprisingly well but I wanted to actually make some from the ground up so to speak. I've recently been talking to a 3rd generation master blacksmith who has agreed to teach me a few things but he's out of town at the moment so I'm flying solo at the moment. Just thought I would chime in and say hello.

I've been lurking for a bit trying to gather information and just basically learning as much as I can. Great info on here and some great blades as well. That being out of the way, a little about me. I'm just getting into smithing and I'm trying to get a forge design that works well. I've settled on a brake rotor on top of an old diner table support. The support consists of a 2.5" black iron pipe screwed into a cast iron base. Very stable and once I put it up on blocks I put a pan underneath to catch clinkers and run a piece of copper pipe up the bottom attached to a double action hand pump for air flow. It worked great when I tried it out and the cost was right at $0.00. Everything so far has been free. I've got two sections of railroad track to hammer on (I know, not the best but it fits in nicely with the 'free' theme) and I've found a 3 pound hammer to work with. So far the hammer is the only thing I had to pay for and at $6.95 I think it'll do for now. I've got a collection of railroad spikes to hammer on to get the feel of things until I'm ready to try my hand at an actual project. I'd really like to get the feel of moving metal with a hammer before I mess up any decent steel. Of course I understand that my setup isn't ideal (or even wanted in some cases) but it's my first foray into the world of forging so I'm starting very basic. On my first fire I used coal that I dug up out of the yard and that seemed to work great, but there aren't many places here to buy coal so charcoal will be the main fuel I'm afraid. Drums are non existent around here since the only store that had them I worked at and it closed down a few months ago. Making my own may not be the easiest thing therefore and I was wondering about bag charcoal. I've heard that it isn't a wise choice due to inconsistencies in the wood types used in manufacturing, but I've noticed several posts where people were using some sort of homogenous charcoal bought at Lowes. I was wondering about the downsides to using this stuff and if it would be better to try and locate a coal supplier so that I can skip charcoal all together. I've learned a great deal so far on this forum and I'll be sticking around to learn much more. Also, any constructive criticism on my forge design would be greatly appreciated. As I said, I know it's not ideal, but it's all been free up to this point and on my budget, that's what I need right now lol. I'd also like to learn more about the various types of steel and what all those numbers mean so I'll get back to reading and searching. Thanks for the wealth of information and I hope to get good enough to try some real projects soon.