Drawing out the metal

Blacksmithing Lesson 3: "Drawing Out"

This is one of the basic skills of blacksmithing. It is the skill of drawing out and it is what everybody thinks of when they see a blacksmith working at the anvil and hammering away. The smith is most likely drawing out the metal.

So What is Drawing out?

It is the act of making a piece of heated metal thinner and longer, or thinner and wider.

A good analogy - Let me make an analogy so you get a good sense for what drawing out is.

Take a clump of play doh and roll it against the surface of a table so you get a pencil shape. Everybody has done this. Now you have a cylinder that is say an inch thick and six inches long. What happens if you continue to roll it against the table? It gets thinner and longer right? You might end up with a cylinder that is 1/2 inch thick and almost a foot long right?

That is the art of drawing out. You make it thinner and longer. But with blacksmithing you don't roll it against a table, you hammer it against an anvil - and while it is hot!

I have a video that shows the process:

RESOURCES

Virtually every task beginning and intermediate blacksmiths must master is presented in this excellent book. Over 400 detailed drawings help increase comprehension levels. This is a reference manual that will be found lying open on the workbench more often than found on the bookshelf and is highly recommended to anyone swinging a hammer to shape hot metal. This is an excellent introduction to this glorious craft and an excellent resource for advancing your knowledge, skills, and vision for blacksmithing.

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