Hello ladies and gentlemen,
This will be my first post and hopefully it will coincide with the posting rules and furthermore that it wont annoy anyone for these simple questions. I have read over the beginning posts and the rules to clarify so I have some basic understanding of what I am doing but I need a few things cleared up.
I'm a seventeen year-old wanna-be smith; I've had a passion for it since the earliest I can remember (when I was reading Tolkien and other fantasy books, with tales of smiths' making exceptional armor and swords and tools with such precision) and recently I have decided to invest myself into this interest instead of just sitting around on my ass.
This being said, I am completely lost in some facets of the beginning process; hopefully someone will be able to help out, now before I continue on I have searched for smithing schools' around my area and it's becoming increasingly noticeable that there is no one in my area (Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia). So there will be a low chance of getting any outside help from around here.
Onto tools and forges;
Forge: I have read that it is possible to make your own forge which sounds most applicable to me over buying a giant pre-made commercial forge, seeing as how I do not have the money to spend on overkill. On this topic I am a little confused about fuel, I have deduced that gas is the winner above coal and such but I am not entirely sure of the pro's and con's: if someone could link me to information or perhaps tell me, I would appreciate it immensely.
Anvil: The basic idea here is I have a giant wooden block as a base, and I have found myself a sturdy piece of rail-way track to place atop it, I have secured it with two chains bolted into the wood with brackets for extra security as well as adding some hooks for tools. I assume this will do, I will proceed to post an image of it in this thread when it is not so dark and/or rainy outside. More on that later.
Hammer: I am in need of information of hammers, I would like a sturdy all-round beginners tool that will allow for me to play around with all aspects and not be restricted to anything; I will likely upgrade and purchase more tools as I become more skilled over the years to come.
Steel: This is a hard one, I have been looking for distributors for steel around my area but not too many are still open with the steel-works closed down, but I do know of one or two, if anyone could give some detailed information on a good starting steel and how I might go about acquiring it, that too would be tremendously helpful.
Other Tools: Any information on drill-presses and basic tool kits would be helpful, I assume I will need more then just a hammer and files. As for protection I am looking for eye/hand protection. I already have OH&S approved steel-capped boots from tech-classes at school so it's just my other digits I need to keep safe.
Wow, this post is becoming rather large; sorry guys. It's not too much longer -- Now on the topics of books, I have already ordered a few of the recommended books, below is a list of the books I have on their way to my doorstep;
"The Complete Bladesmith", "The Master Bladesmith" and "The Patternwelded Blade" by Jim Hrisoulas
"The Craft of the Japanese Sword" by Yoshindo Yoshihara & Leonhard kapp
"Custom Knifemaking" by Tim McCreight
These seem to be a good place to start book-wise, again; any further recommendations would be nice. I'm always keen to learn new tricks and money for educational purposes isn't a problem with the parents. Other then all of that, I have some questions on assembling my own forge seeing as how the guide to do it that is linked on the beginners post is using non-Australian measurements I couldn't find much relevant material; I'll probably get to that another time.
Warmest Regards,
Arden Anaman.
