How to Start Forging in Your Backyard | Beginners Blacksmithing and Bladesmithing

so if you clicked on this video you have one question how do i get into blacksmithing or bladesmithing the truth is it's not as hard as everybody makes it sound in this video i'm going to go over where you need to start if you want to get into blacksmithing how you learn blacksmithing and how you get better at blacksmithing along with some other tips tricks and other tools that i have used because as you guys can see i am also in what we would call a garage shop so first things first let's get an introduction out of the way i'm todd koch and i'm a 17 year old blacksmith who has been going at it for three years i started in a garage shop with my friend that cost us less than 50 bucks and to this day i still work in a garage or shed shop something really simple which brings us to the first part of where do you start when you want to get into blacksmithing first things first you're obviously going to need a place to do blacksmithing you need a place to store your tools to hit metal and somewhere that's also safe for you to practice this without hurting anyone now a common misconception i hear every time that somebody wants to start blacksmithing is they just don't have a place because people always think you need a bigger place than you do really look at me i am in a lifetime plastic shed with a 4 by 10 foot floor space and i have everything i need in here to make high quality knives and tools if you really are determined you can find a place to do this especially if you have your own property or if you're a miner and you get to mooch off your parents like i do i would say the two most common and honestly best places to start blacksmithing are in a shed like this or in a garage now when it comes to tools you're only going to really need four tools to start i would say one is hammers if you're planning on forging you are going to need these bad boys because hitting the metal with your hand is not very pleasant the continuous tools you can make so many tools i've already put up some tutorials on beginners blacksmithing tools i'll link to that up here you can make all of these by hand and save yourself a crap ton of money i'll also give you guys the link up here to my rebar tong video which is a great alternative to buying tons which can be up to like 50 bucks a pair if you buy them off ebay or something like that two you're gonna need an anvil i got this one off amazon for about 120 bucks but that can also be a steep price range for somebody who's not sure if they want to get into a full yet in which case i would recommend the 15 pound anvil from harbor freight these things are in basically any harbor freight i've gone to they're about 20 to 30 bucks me and my friend pounded on one of those things for a year before we got an upgrade to an iq like this that being said they're probably not going to last you very long so don't depend on it as a long-term anvil you also are going to need a grinder of some sort i personally love my angle grinder and i actually started making knives and tools with angle grinders specifically however if you are willing to put a little bit more money into this i would also recommend the 1 by 30 belt grinder for harbor freight i've had this thing for about half a year now and let me tell you it is much better than the big old 4x20 something grinder that harbor freight also has as you can see i have mine down here it's a little bit modded out i took off the backing plate and stuff to make belt changes easier but to be frank this one is just superior because belt changes are easier if you don't put on this backing plate there are more legitimate abrasive companies that you can buy from and changing abrasives is going to be a really good way to save yourself some time and increase the quality of your work no matter what grinding option you go with though either angle grinder or belt sanders or even bench grinder make sure you get a respirator seriously small microscopic particles in your lungs is just not a good recipe for success and what's the good of doing something if it kills you right and then obviously if you're going to be blacksmithing you need a forge something to heat the metal up with an option is a coal forge i've never tried that personally so i can't really give a lot of experience in that area but as far as gas forges go that's where i really specialize i started with an old coffee can forge these things are super easy to make you get a coffee can you get some screws for legs and you pour in the some plaster of paris as your refractory in fact this very blow torch is my first burner it is the bernzomatic ts4000 if you guys are wondering i'll be dropping links in the description for all these tools so if you're interested in any of this stuff look down there another option is building your own firebrick forge i did this and it works pretty well overall i would say cost me about 50 to 70 bucks to fully build out but the third option and again the one that i would recommend if you want to spend just a little bit more money to get into this is the mr volcano forge this is the forge i currently use it is about an 80 kit that you can get off amazon and it works amazingly but also if you are interested in that check up here i made a video on setting up this forge a little bit ago if you're looking for something that just gives you a bit more of a detailed review and setup process go check that out okay so say you got your place set up your tools all with you you got your forge set up how do you learn how to blacksmith probably the most beaten path and recommended way to do it is to find a local blacksmithing class these are sometimes hard to find and they can be expensive though so just be aware of that going into it i have never actually taken a professional blacksmithing class my friend who got me into blacksmithing took one beginner's class but to be honest me and him have learned almost everything we know solely through being out in the forge learning it and youtube tutorials like these ones personally i would not trade the way i've learned blacksmithing for anything i feel like i'm a very hands-on learner and though it would be nice to have a blacksmithing class it frankly was just a little bit too much money for me to fully commit to at the time and then finally once you've learned how to blacksmith once you're out in the shop doing your own stuff a little bit how do you get better once again i'm going to hammer it into you practice i'm a very strong believer in the idea that if you're out doing something you're going to learn something a big thing too is forging to shape especially if you're doing knives you're going to want to learn and teach yourself how to forge to shape i would also go with hand sanding hand sanding is a pain in the butt it takes a long time heck the knife in the last video that i just released on forging a knife from some rusty scrap that one took me about five hours to handstand guys which may be surprising because i condensed it into about 15 seconds of the video but it takes time to make a quality product don't rush it be patient with yourself you're not gonna be amazing on your first go and that's all right i have forged i would say up to 50 60 knives at this point some of them are broken some of them have finished really well but the key is that i'm out there forging and grinding and getting hands-on experience with making these things and that's my quick little crash course on blacksmithing guys let me give you guys a shop tour though real quick so then you can see how this all comes together into one cohesive idea and also we're getting near to 200 subscribers when i'm filming it so whoo celebration so we get into the shed and first thing you see is the bench grinder and the belt sander i also got my angle grinder stored down there and my shop back because this place gets dirty up above the grinding and finishing stuff we got hammers and tongs and tools here's my sandpaper that i use to hand sand my drill bits i also got some finishing material here lacquer wax all that good stuff and then we pan over and bam we see the forge heart of the shop literally couldn't do this without it right and then over here we've got the finishing space my small vise is here i think it's a four inch jaw and this is where i hand sand this is where i drill holes this is literally my only vice in the entire shop i got my blowtorch for heating small stuff up i got my epoxy vinegar for acid etching and soaking oil over there wood hardener this is kind of where i just keep all my finishing stuff and this is where i go in the second half of processing a tool or knife normally i've got my hand sanding stick these things are super nice when it comes to hand sanding honestly 100 recommend using one of these i've done it for a while and it was a pain in the butt and then needle files these are honestly one of my more underrated tools because this is how i shape handles this is how i make guards this is how i just get into small spaces and add small details that really refine a knife or tool i also got my welding helmet up there and the rest of my welding equipment is over here underneath the table i got a little bench that i made in my welding class and i've got the nice little amazon welder under there i haven't really welded in a hot minute but i will probably be doing a review video on that sometime soon but back over here we got the abrasives hanging up we got the respirator and then we got the safety glasses up here safety first apron and down here we've got the where i store the anvils this is my striking anvil this is for a heavier project tools mostly that is where i store my regular anvil it's out here right now but every single time i'm out in the shed and locking things up i move it in and now i've got my quench tank down there it's water i need to convert it to oil i know i'll get around to that sometime soon and then that's where my propane is i've got junk stored over there and over here is where i store all my materials i know it looks like a mess but it makes sense in my mind and then this is where all my metal is stored lots of it is rebar lots of it scrap i've also got a bunch of longer pieces of rebar out back and yeah whenever i come out here i open her up i plug it in through this extension cord and i get to work in this tiny shop but it works to finish this video off i just like to emphasize if you really want to get into blacksmithing you can blacksmithing has been such a big part of my life and i love it i would recommend it to anybody who wants to try it it's very therapeutic and a good way to get out your inner pyromaniac but yeah with that like subscribe comment share i've seen a lot of support recently and i'm very appreciative of that guys take it easy i hope you guys can set up your own shops or i hope this helps some of you guys who already have a garage shop and i'll see you guys in the next one ooh bonus segment you get to see my filming setup guys it's literally just a dash mat and some pieces of fire brick and cinder blocks i am a youtuber

Channel: Todd Koch

Views: 11,452

Keywords: Beginner’s blacksmithing, Blacksmithing, Blacksmith, Forge, How to forge, How to blacksmith, How to learn blacksmithing, Learn blacksmithing, How to forge a knife, How to make a knife, Making a garage shop, Budget blacksmithing, Backyard blacksmith, How to start blacksmithing, How to start forging, Amazon anvil, Mr volcano forge, Harbor freight tools, Blacksmith shop, Blacksmithing 101, 3 tips for blacksmithing

Id: SpfsPi6E-0o

Length: 9min 20sec (560 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 01 2022