A Lot Harder Than It Looks

Blacksmithing makes great YouTube videos. Flames, red-hot metal, sparks flying, and all the beating and banging give visuals that I’m not sure any other craft can compete with.

I’ve mentioned before, I wanted to give it a try. Today, I pulled out my little forge and anvil…

I know it doesn’t look like much, but when you’re trying to cram as much as you can in a 12’x16′ shop, things get downsized. So, right now, I’ve got a forge made from two firebricks with a propane torch and a small stake anvil to work with. Next to the mini-forge are some pieces of an old garage door spring for my stock.

Now, apparently making leaves is supposed to be an easy beginner project.

Seriously, watch the video. It’s only 6 minutes long. He makes it look so easy.

Let me tell you…

I didn’t even get close. I made, um, shapes. Not that I expected it to be easy but, for someone who’s pretty proud of their mechanical aptitude, this was humbling.

Trying to hold the workpiece, get it to the right spot, and hitting it where you want is a challenge. After a few tries with the leaf, I just got the end of the metal hot and hammered it out. Just experimenting with moving things around.

After looking at the last three pieces for a little bit, I did realize I might could get something useful out of them. I used my belt sander to grind them into a small carving knife and a couple of small marking knives.

I put them back in the forge again for heat treating, quenching them when they’re red hot. The high heat and quench, hardens the steel.

After the quench, I pulled the torch out of the forge and heated them slightly to temper them. The tempering takes a little bit of the hardness out, leaving the tool hard enough to hold a cutting edge, but not quite as brittle.

When the metal is at the right temperature for tempering, it will turn from a straw color, to a deep blue. This isn’t from the heat in the steel, but from a thin oxide layer that forms at those temperatures. I was aiming for the straw color, dunking each tool in some water when it was where I thought it should be.

It may be hard to tell, but I may have overshot the temperature on the bottom one a little bit.

I’ve got some ideas for handles for these three. I’ll see what kind of tools they turn out to be.

Things I learned:

• You have to accept some limitations when you downsize equipment. The mini-forge can only put out so much heat, so there are obvious limits on how big your workpiece can be, and how long it will stay at a working temperature. I’ve used it successfully before for heat treating, but forging may require an upgrade, even for small projects.

• Blacksmithing requires a different understanding of workflow. Most other craft involves cutting pieces to shape or dimension, and connecting them in some manner if necessary. Forging means moving some material around, while leaving some where it is. Different thought processes are necessary.

I’ll keep practicing. Hopefully, I’ll make some leaves before too long.