Making your own forge is the largest challenge to becoming a backyard blacksmith. But it isn't really that hard and there are lots of different ways to do it. Some of this will depend on what you are eventually trying to achieve with your blacksmithing.

Here is a look at the home made forge. I have also pointed out some of the other basic blacksmithing requirements. It can be an expensive hobby or pursuit but with a little ingenuity you can alleviate a lot of the expense. You can make your own forge (if you have the ability to do just a little basic welding this project is very easy. But you don't have to do any welding at all) and you can even use a piece of railroad track to make an anvil. From there the coal or charcoal will be a big expense and a few basic tools will then get you started.

Some of the specifics of this forge:

I used the deck from a lawn mower as the forge and the fire pot is a brake drum that has been welded in. The tubes are from an old swing set and the blower is just a hair dryer with two settings (high and low). The legs were the handle on the mower.

The Basic Idea - The coal or charcoal is placed in the container and centered right in the middle where the brake drum is. The blower blows a stream of air right up into it. The pipe extends down from the fire pot and it has a spring loaded cover on it. This way I can easily open it up and clean it.

I also have a tutorial that shows you how to make a forge just like this one. It doesn't take much to make a forge that is perfectly fine for all kinds of smithing. How to make a blacksmith forge

Return to the blacksmithing lesson 1

Grill

This is great for putting over the fire pot rather than a piece of screen.

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