HammarBear - Forging 001 (22 March 2020)

Over the last few months, I've gotten into a new hobby. I've always been a fan of Youtube channels like Alec Steele and Shurap. Since subscribing to their channels, I've really been wanting to get into doing that myself.

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Kody Harris, a friend of mine, is a second-generation ferrier, and offered to let me come over to use his forge and anvil, which I took him up on quickly. After a few times smithing, I was hooked. I brought a pair of old coil springs that were on my Forester a while back, cut them up into half-coils, and began flattening them out.

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Kody has been using old horseshoes to make his knives, and they've all turned out very well. His technique is quite a bit more polished than mine, as he's been smithing quite a bit longer. And, he has been trained by an actual smith, whereas I am youtube trained.

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I'm not the best at forging just yet, but I'm getting there...even if it does involve burning myself by being an idiot and grabbing hot metal with my bare hands...which has happened twice now.

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Kody often has great input on technique and general use of the anvil. We've yet to properly harden a blade yet, but that is coming soon.

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Most of the fun is using the grinder, though. Throwing sparks is a ton of fun, and
makes for great photos.

Check back soon for more crushing.

-HammarBear