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Blacksmithing and woodworking, although I'm currently without a shop. Blacksmithing is cool because with enough experience, materials, a hammer, and an anvil,

Blacksmithing and woodworking, although I'm currently without a shop. Blacksmithing is cool because with enough experience, materials, a hammer, and an anvil, they can make basically all the tools they need for a huge number of projects. I've made gardening tools, bird feeder hangers, fireplace pokers, and some other miscellaneous tools. Plus, it gives you an opportunity to learn about propane burner design. Fun stuff! Woodworking is nice because it's incredibly practical. Being able to make your own furniture (that doesn't look/feel terrible) is a great feeling. Both blacksmithing and woodworking have low cost and experience barriers to entry, although woodworking is the cheaper/easier of the two to start with. Additionally, they both are moderately physical activities. I feel like the motivation for doing both of these is the same as why I took up programming.

balabaster 11y ago
I'd love to try my hand at blacksmithing. That's on my list of things to try. I'm not sure yet what I need to get into it.
- rimunroe 11y ago
  First off, I'd see if there are any places offering blacksmithing lessons around your area. They're great, inexpensive, and a fun way to spend an afternoon and make something. You will need a heat source, something to use as an anvil, a hammer, and some iron. Trying to figure out how to get an anvil was a hard thing for me when I started. Anvils aren't cheap in the first place, and shipping is usually a pain. Fortunately, you can actually try out a lot of smithing projects without even getting a proper anvil. You just need something heavy with a good striking surface to work on at first. I got my hands on a 12 inch diameter, 10 inch tall steel cylinder which worked just dandy for the things I did. I'd talk with some people in some machine shops or scrap yards to see if they have any large hunks of steel. Also, if you know anyone who is into metal sculptures, see if they could help you out (that's what I did). The source of heat is something I spent a while trying to get right. I tried charcoal for a while, but then switched to using propane burners and loved it. Charcoal is nice because it's a lot less intimidating, is easier to work with, and it's easier to achieve higher temperatures with it for if you want to do experiments with melting stuff, so I recommend starting with it. To hold the charcoal, you'll need a fire pot. A fire pot is just a thing to hold your fire and provide airflow as needed. You can get by with a hole in the ground when you're just trying some things out, but making some fireclay bricks is the way to go. I don't remember what recipe I used to make my bricks originally, but it wasn't hard and was super cheap. I used a 120 mm case fan hooked up to a pipe that went under the fire pot to act as a bellows. Alternatively, propane burners are great, the fuel is cheap and doesn't get you covered in black dust, are surprisingly simple to make, and produce a really satisfying roar when used. I followed a design by Rob Reil https://www.abana.org/ronreil/design1.shtml https://www.abana.org/ronreil/design1.shtml (all blacksmith sites are ugly). You'll need multiple burners in order to reach a good temperature, but they're cheap to make. As for the hammer, a standard 25 oz ball-peen hammer from any hardware store will work fine to start with. You can get scrap iron to play around with at first really easily. I made some of my first stuff out of some angle iron from an old bed frame. Good steel stock costs a lot, but you won't need that for a long time, so just make do with stuff from scrap yards and stuff.
jlewallen 11y ago
Two hobbies that marry incredibly well. I've got some hinges and a hasp on order from a blacksmith in Colorado for a woodworking project and I'm incredibly excited to be adding custom forged hardware to the things I create.
- rimunroe 11y ago
  Yeah! I actually originally tried out blacksmithing because I wanted to be able to make some custom drawer handles for a desk.

balabaster 11y ago

I'd love to try my hand at blacksmithing. That's on my list of things to try. I'm not sure yet what I need to get into it.

rimunroe 11y ago
First off, I'd see if there are any places offering blacksmithing lessons around your area. They're great, inexpensive, and a fun way to spend an afternoon and make something. You will need a heat source, something to use as an anvil, a hammer, and some iron. Trying to figure out how to get an anvil was a hard thing for me when I started. Anvils aren't cheap in the first place, and shipping is usually a pain. Fortunately, you can actually try out a lot of smithing projects without even getting a proper anvil. You just need something heavy with a good striking surface to work on at first. I got my hands on a 12 inch diameter, 10 inch tall steel cylinder which worked just dandy for the things I did. I'd talk with some people in some machine shops or scrap yards to see if they have any large hunks of steel. Also, if you know anyone who is into metal sculptures, see if they could help you out (that's what I did). The source of heat is something I spent a while trying to get right. I tried charcoal for a while, but then switched to using propane burners and loved it. Charcoal is nice because it's a lot less intimidating, is easier to work with, and it's easier to achieve higher temperatures with it for if you want to do experiments with melting stuff, so I recommend starting with it. To hold the charcoal, you'll need a fire pot. A fire pot is just a thing to hold your fire and provide airflow as needed. You can get by with a hole in the ground when you're just trying some things out, but making some fireclay bricks is the way to go. I don't remember what recipe I used to make my bricks originally, but it wasn't hard and was super cheap. I used a 120 mm case fan hooked up to a pipe that went under the fire pot to act as a bellows. Alternatively, propane burners are great, the fuel is cheap and doesn't get you covered in black dust, are surprisingly simple to make, and produce a really satisfying roar when used. I followed a design by Rob Reil https://www.abana.org/ronreil/design1.shtml https://www.abana.org/ronreil/design1.shtml (all blacksmith sites are ugly). You'll need multiple burners in order to reach a good temperature, but they're cheap to make. As for the hammer, a standard 25 oz ball-peen hammer from any hardware store will work fine to start with. You can get scrap iron to play around with at first really easily. I made some of my first stuff out of some angle iron from an old bed frame. Good steel stock costs a lot, but you won't need that for a long time, so just make do with stuff from scrap yards and stuff.

jlewallen 11y ago

Two hobbies that marry incredibly well. I've got some hinges and a hasp on order from a blacksmith in Colorado for a woodworking project and I'm incredibly excited to be adding custom forged hardware to the things I create.

rimunroe 11y ago
Yeah! I actually originally tried out blacksmithing because I wanted to be able to make some custom drawer handles for a desk.