How to Buy Blacksmithing Tools

Blacksmithing is growing in popularity among men who want the primal masculine experience of forging metal. If you think woodworking is too complicated, or if you just want a manly craft in which you can pound and pound and pound, blacksmithing may be for you. It's simpler to get started than you may imagine. You need three tools: an anvil, a hammer and tongs. Oh -- and any old shovel for digging out an 8-inch diameter by 8-inch deep fire pit. This article will teach you how to buy these tools at a cost of little to nothing.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Internet connection
• Money -- less than $100, and as little as $20.

1. Take the easiest and most exciting step first: buy a hammer. You can get fashion-magazine picky about it, and research gear like a teenage girl researches accessories. Or you can grow a beard and get your tool: a simple, common ball-peen hammer. Not a carpenter's hammer. The metal of a carpenter's hammer is too hard and brittle. Blacksmithing requires a hammer with relatively soft metal. A ball-peen hammer, any ball-peen hammer, fits the bill. You can recognize a ball-peen hammer by it's distinctive ball on the opposite site of the flat hammer face.

2. Choose the right size. As with bowling balls, you don't want to overestimate your strength. If you're large and very strong, you can go with 3 or 4 pounds -- but that is excessive for all but the largest men. A 2 pound hammer is sufficient for most.

3. Look for a ball-peen hammer. You can find ball-peen hammers for very little money at flea markets and garage sales. Shopping for your hammer at a flea market only adds to the 19th-century flavor of your new hobby. You can mill from stall to stall gruffly inquiring after a hammer and driving a hard bargain when you find one. But if you're busy, and not fixated on past centuries, use an Internet connection to search for ball-peen hammers at all the usual places: eBay, Craigslist, and your local classifieds. Make sure that the flat face of the ball-peen hammer is smooth, not grooved or dented.

4. Buy your tongs. A pair of long-handled locking pliers will do, believe it or not. And the handles don't have to be all that long. Don't buy them new. You'll probably find them at the same flea markets where you find the hammer -- and on the same trip, let's hope.

5. Buy or scrounge an anvil or an "anvil." You can buy a "real" anvil from a store for around $250. Or you can buy any piece of iron that is at least 7 inches wide, 7 inches tall, at least a foot long, and with a flat surface on top, for not less than about $70 at a scrap iron dealer. An old piece of railroad rail is perfect.

6. Consider other purchasing options. Better yet, you can scrounge up some piece of iron that fits the bill, and try to pay very little for it. Likely sources are junk yards, scrap metal yards, small industrial outfits, marine yards, demolition companies, and demolition sites. Never take any piece of metal that you have not bargained for. You must have permission. Otherwise -- hello! -- it's stealing. But for any persistent man -- or woman -- a suitable piece of iron can be found and purchased for little money. (If you are truly self-sufficient, you can even use the smooth back of a barbell weight plate.)

7. To mount your piece of scrap metal as an anvil, you have options: You could half-sink it in a bucket of heavy concrete mix. You could half-sink it in a container of heavy sand. You could lay a large barbell plate on a large (and very sturdy) workbench. But the bucket of concrete or sand is probably best, so that your anvil shall be portable. You'll need to be able to carry it out to your fire pit, which you will dig in your back yard. (You can build an indoor forge, but that is not advisable for the beginning blacksmith because of the danger of fire.)

Tips & Warnings

• Hammer, tongs and anvil -- these are the three essential tools for any blacksmith. After you've purchased them, you can make any other tools you may need.