Blacksmithing Tips

Safety
1. Always wear safety glasses.
2. Avoid wearing very frayed clothing because it is easy to catch them on fire.
3. Don’t wear synthetic clothing because it will melt. A small spark can cause very large and possibly
revealing hole to form in synthetic clothing. Cotton and wool are very good materials to work in.
4. It is best to wear long pants that cover the tops of your shoes. You do not want a hot piece of metal
falling into your shoe.
5. Be careful to not catch hair on fire.
6. Wear ear protection for all loud activities.
7. Drink lots of water.
8. Stop working when you get tired. Accidents happen much more often when you are exhausted and you
are far more likely to ruin what you are making.
9. Seek first aid if you are burned or injured in any way.
10. Make sure your work area is free of obstacles and you are aware of all people around you before you
start. Occasionally look around to make sure it is still safe to work.
11. Don’t carry hot steel at face or upper body level if you need to move it. Hold the metal towards the
ground and be very careful about where you put it. Don't leave hot steel where you or someone else
might pick it up or get burned in any way. If you’re working on a project and need to place hot steel
down clearly mark it as hot with white chalk.
12. Don’t forge with the hardy (the chisel that points up and sits in the square hole in the anvil) in the
anvil. It can remove fingers.
13. Seek assistance on using any power equipment, or really any equipment at all, that you are not familiar
with, comfortable with, and aware of the proper safety precautions for.

Fire Building
You are transforming the coal into coke. The coke is what you want to burn. The goal is to be
making coke at least as fast as you are burning it. As the coke is consumed in the center of the firepot you
push the coal to the edge of the fire. The coal will give off a yellowish smoke. It is optimal to have all the
smoke consumed by the flames of the burning coke. The coal will give off smoke as it transforms into coke.
When it changes to coke you push it into the center and replace it with more coal. The work will determine
the size of the fire, which in turn will dictate how much air needs to be coming into the fire and how quickly
the coal needs to be made into coke.

Hammering
1. Make sure that there isn’t anything that can hurt you before you start hammering. Remove the hardy
and any other tools from the surface of the anvil to prevent damage to your hand and wrist. Make sure
there isn’t anything or anyone that can interfere with your swing.
2. Don’t wear a glove on your hammer hand.
3. Position at the anvil will vary depending on what you are working , but a good place to get in the habit
of standing is with your hip at either the horn or heel of the anvil. By orienting yourself to the anvil in
this way you are able to stand over your work and use the different parts of the anvil very effectively.
4. Keep a loose grip on the hammer, let the handle move in your hand.
5. Don’t use your wrist to hammer. Use your shoulder and elbow. The shoulder is the real strength in
lifting the hammer and gravity should be the main force bringing it down.
6. Let the hammer bounce when you strike the steel; don’t try to stop it.
7. Let gravity do a lot of the work for you. For more power lift the hammer higher.
8. The most efficient hammering occurs when the hammer goes straight down and rebounds straight up.
9. Make sure when you are working that your back is straight, or close to it, and your elbow still has a
slight bend to it when you are striking steel. If your elbow is straight at the end of your hammer stroke
you will rapidly develop tendonitis. Keeping your back straight will prevent lower back pain and give
you a better hammer swing.
10. Be sure that you have a very good grip on the metal you are working. If you are using tongs be sure the
metal won’t slip in them.
11. Be aware that if you miss the metal you are forging the hammer will rebound upwards very quickly.
Don’t put your head directly over the hammer.

Blacksmithing Processes

Drawing out/ stretching the metal

Come straight down on the metal with the hammer turned slightly so the edge of the hammer face is
hitting. Using the edge of the hammer will allow you to focus the energy of your blow in making the metal
longer. A flat hit with the face of the hammer will make the steel wider and longer. If you are making a
taper, start at the base of the taper and push the metal to the tip. Work on two sides; one hit, turn ninety
degrees, one hit, turn back, and repeat. To speed the stretching of the metal, hammer on the horn or on a
slightly rounded edge of the anvil.

Spreading the metal

Using the pein of the hammer, strike the metal in the center of the area you wish to widen. Then
push the metal out from the center, first to one side, then to the other. Avoid hitting the edges until the end of
the shaping, and be careful not to thin the edges too much. Spreading steel on the diamond can help you get
nice edges. The blow with the pein should generally be straight down.

Upsetting
Use a small hammer if you want to increase the size of only the end of a bar of steel, use a larger
hammer if you want to increase the size of the metal a little farther back from the end. As soon as the metal
starts bending you aren’t upsetting it anymore. Thicker steel and shorter lengths are easier to upset. A high
yellow heat makes the operation a lot easier. Upsetting the end of bars is much easier than the middle. It is
often easier to start with a bigger piece of steel and draw out the ends or forge weld a collar in the middle
than to upset the middle. Slightly beveling the end of a bar will help to transmit the force of your blow a
little deeper into the steel.

Scrolling/ Spiraling
Bend the metal over the horn of the anvil or a rounded anvil edge. You are striking the metal that is
hanging over the edge. If you strike the steel that is against the anvil then you will be stretching it, not
bending it. By only hanging a small amount of metal over the edge you are isolating the area you want to
bend. As the scroll or spiral develops, keep feeding more metal over the edge to continue it. The steel will
curve very smoothly at a high, even heat. Steel will always bend where it is hottest or thinnest. Trying to
curve steel at too low a heat will result in curves that aren’t smooth and graceful. When working on the horn
of the anvil, to get a straight curve you must be pushing the metal perpendicular to the side of the horn you
are working on.

Twisting
An even heat gives an even twist. To straighten steel after you’ve twisted it, you can use the jaws of
the vise to squeeze the metal into line. You hold the steel on the diamond while tightening the vice. Then
loosen, turn it 90 degrees, and tighten again. Another way to straighten the steel without marring the edges is
with a wooden hammer.

Cutting/Splitting
Use a sharp narrow chisel. For the smoothest cuts work evenly and make multiple passes. Working
from both sides also gives the best results, but it is faster to go from just one side. If you are putting several
chiseled lines on one bar of steel try to work back and forth from one side to the other to keep the distortion
even. If you are working on all four sides of a square bar, work on one side and then flip it 180 degrees to
work on the opposite side. Working like that will cause less distortion. If you are driving a chisel all the way
through, mark both sides of the steel. Drive the chisel half way to three quarters of the way through, flip it
and finish the slit.
Punching

Drive the punch almost all the way through from one side, flip the steel , and drive the punch into
the center of the dark area to knock out the metal slug and finish the hole. Start punching at a yellow heat
and finish at a red heat. The red heat will make it easier for the slug to shear out.

Forge Weld
You are heating the steel until the surface is molten without getting the center to that molten state.
By bringing two pieces of steel together at that temperature and lightly hammering, you are creating new
molecular bonds between the two pieces of steel, joining them into one. Higher carbon steels will fall apart
if you bring them to a temperature in which they are starting to sparkle. Good welds can be made by
bringing low carbon steel to a light sparkling heat and hammering it to another piece at the same
temperature. Fluxes will allow you to weld in a larger temperature range; they make it easier. You flux the
steel when it gets to a red or orange heat by sprinkling the flux onto it. Twenty Mule-Team Borax is a fine
flux and can be bought in the detergent section of the grocery store. Boric Acid also makes a good flux and
is available in drug stores. Mixing iron oxide into either of the fluxes might make welding even easier.
When steel is at a welding temperature you must bring it to the anvil very quickly and hammer the weld
lightly and rapidly. Make sure your fire is composed of coke and you don’t have a clinker before welding.
You want the steel to be in the neutral to the reducing part of the fire (the middle of your fire). Avoid the
oxidizing part of the fire (the bottom of the fire where the air comes out). You want to bring the steel to
temperature fairly quickly, without using an excessive amount of air and exposing the steel to an oxidizing
fire. The anvil will cool steel very quickly, so you want to be hitting the steel with a hammer at almost the
same time as it first contacts the anvil. A small upset and a feather edge on your scarfs will allow you to
blend the welds in and make them close to invisible.