Blacksmithing is one of the oldest craft. The sight of red-hot metal, taking on bizarre inimitable shapes under the well-adjusted blows of a skilled blacksmith, is a thrilling and bewitching picture. Few want to become a blacksmith today, but if you still want to, then why not try it.
Instructions
Step 1
Find and equip a workplace. You need to start with the forge. The ideal option is the countryside or a suburban suburban area. A simple shed can serve as a smithy room, but then in the autumn and winter time you will hardly have to do what you love. The size of the capital premises is determined by the scale and nature of future work.
Step 2
The heart of any forge is a forge, where the metal, heating up, turns into a material pliable for processing. The furnace can be fueled with coal, charcoal or ordinary firewood. But coke is best suited for this. Options with liquid fuel and gas are possible.
Step 3
The horn consists of a table and a top cover. The height of the table is determined by the blacksmith himself, so that it is convenient for him to work. The same applies to the horizontal table surface. Make a lid of refractory bricks, and in the center place a furnace nest, which consists of a grate and a lance. The air is supplied to the furnace by means of a fan. The most popular fan is "snail" with a squirrel-type impeller.
Step 4
A mandatory accessory for blacksmiths is an anvil, which you place in the center of the room next to the forge. It would be nice to get an old anvil, but if you don't have one, a piece of a railroad track is fine. In addition, you will need a blacksmith's vice, a sledgehammer, a handbrake with a transverse back, blacksmith pliers, a straight chisel, etc.
Step 5
Start mastering the craft. There are several forging techniques. With the help of a technique called a hood, the heated workpiece is pulled out by blows with a sledgehammer along its entire length. As a result, many depressions are formed on the workpiece, which are then smoothed with a trowel. The reverse process - increasing the width of the workpiece by decreasing the length, is called upsetting. With the help of chopping, the workpiece is either divided into several parts, or remains chopped. This technique is used in artistic forging. More complex techniques are torsion, bending, patterning and smoothing.
