I have had the luck of entering blacksmithing when the craft was resurging and the Internet was offering forums where blacksmiths across the globe could congregate around the virtual forge and share tips and teachings. Traditional blacksmiths didn’t have that opportunity, relying instead on local guilds and apprenticeships to pass on the trade. In the early 1900s, blacksmithing all but died out as a craft because the knowledge wasn’t being shared.
It is said that nothing is ever new in blacksmithing—only rediscovered. The collective of blacksmiths through the ages must have tried everything we know today at least once or twice at some point in history. After all, modern smiths are using these same techniques to create similar objects that all smiths through time have made. Being a part of that tradition is humbling, and I feel grateful to be a part of passing on the knowledge I have accumulated from books and from other smiths, along with tricks I’ve picked up in my years of blacksmithing on the farm and at museum demonstrations. All of the smiths I have come across both online and in person have helped me become a better blacksmith. I hope that this book helps get you hooked on blacksmithing or, if you are already hooked, gives you some tips that you might not have thought of.
Glossary
Alloy. A mixture of different metals and molecules.
Anneal. To slowly cool hardened steel in a controlled manner to fully relax the grain structure, softening the steel.
Anvil. A heavy block of steel for hammering on.
Apprentice. A student taken on by a master to learn the trade by experience. Historically, while learning, apprentices did the more mundane tasks, such as cleaning, often working for free in trade. Once ready, they became journeymen and were able to be employed by different master smiths before attempting to become tested as a master smith.
Blacksmith. A smith who forges iron. A whitesmith uses files and scrapers to finish the project rather than leaving it as forged.
Brazing rod. A brass or bronze rod used to fuse steel together at high heats; found in most welding shops.
Borax. Sodium tetraborate, commonly found in laundry aisles but also useful as a flux to prevent oxidation from forming during forge welding.
Boss. The hinge section of a pair of tongs. Also a raised area on a piece of iron.
Butcher. A tool with a shallow one-sided bevel, used to start a sharp shoulder.
Carbon. A molecule that turns iron into steel. The amount of carbon in steel determines how hardenable the steel is. Too much carbon can make steel brittle, as in cast iron.
Case hardening. Adding carbon to the surface of mild steel to make a hardenable skin. There are commercial case-hardening products available, but traditionally it was done by putting the steel in a container of hair, horn, or bone and heating it to red hot for multiple days, depending on how much carbon was wanted in the steel.
Center punch. A punch with a sharp point on the tip to create a mark, either for bending or making it easier for a drill bit to start without skating away.
Chamfer. To flatten or round a corner by forging or filing.
Charcoal. Partially burnt wood that has had everything but the carbon burnt off. Used for centuries as the primary forge fuel until coal was discovered.
Chase. To use punches and chisels to create designs in metal.
Cheek. The side of the handle hole in a tool.
Cold shut. A folded-over piece of metal that creates a crack.
Coal. An organic mineral that can burn. Often has many impurities that melt into slag and clinker but is denser than charcoal, thus requiring less fuel to burn as hot. Two types of blacksmithing coal are used: bituminous (soft) and anthracite (hard). It comes in many different grades depending on its heat production and impurities.
Descale. To remove iron oxide created by heat. Often done with a wire brush or by pickling with vinegar or other acids.
Draw (out). To stretch and thin out iron by hammering it; it is generally a uniform shape change rather than tapering.
Drift. (v.) To open a punched hole and make it larger or change its shape. (n.) A punch used to open up and refine a drilled or punched hole. Often used with a slot punch or slitting chisel to make larger holes than the width of the steel will allow.
Flux. A material used to cover the area to be welded and prevent iron oxidation that would inhibit welding. Laundry borax is most often used in forge welding.
Forge. (v.) To work metal with a hammer. (n.) The area that contains the fire used to heat the metal.
Forge welding. Heating steel to near melting and fusing it with hammer blows.
Fuller. Rounded wedge shape used to control the direction that metal moves while forging. A cross–peen is a good example of a fuller.
Harden. To make a piece of steel stronger and more brittle by heating it up and cooling it quickly.
Hardy. An anvil tool used to cut iron, most often hot iron.
Hardy hole. A square hole in the anvil used for securing tools, such as the hardy, chisels, and swages; it can also be used to help bend metal or punch holes.
Hot cut. A chisel for cutting hot iron, either handheld or handled.
Hot rasping. Using a coarse rasp to quickly remove metal while the piece is hot. It is an efficient method to remove metal, often faster than using a grinding wheel, but it can ruin the hardness of a file.
Hundredweight system. An older method of measuring weight; often used on antique anvils.
Iron. An element that makes up the majority of steel alloys. Wrought iron is pure iron with layers of silica in it from being forged from metal extracted from iron ore.
Jig. Any device used to make reproducing a part of a project easier.
Lap weld. To forge weld pieces of iron together by overlapping them.
Leg vise. Also known as a post or blacksmith’s vise, it is used to hold metal but differs from a machinist’s vise by having a leg that takes some of the force off the mounting screws and jaws.
Mandrel. A cone of varying sizes that can be large enough to stand on the floor or can be used in the hardy hole or held by hand. It can be used to make rings or bends. Also known as a beak.
Martensite. A hard form of iron crystal structure in higher carbon steels created by quickly cooling the steel, preventing carbon from precipitating out of the iron crystal structure.
Normalizing. To cool steel slowly, but not as slowly as in annealing. It both softens the steel and changes the steel’s grain structure less than annealing does.
Peen (or pein). Rounded end of a hammer, opposite the face. Can be a rounded wedge, as in a cross-peen, or a ball, as in a ball-peen.
Penny weld. To flux and use copper to braze two parts together by heating the piece in the forge until the copper melts.
Planish. To use light, overlapping hammer blows to smooth and work-harden iron.
Pritchel. A slender rectangular punch used by farriers to punch nail holes into horseshoes.
Pritchel hole. The round hole in the heel of an anvil for punching and drifting.
Punch. (v.) To make a hole in a piece of metal as an alternative to drilling. (n.) The tool that punches.
Quench. Liquid or gas used to cool steel, most commonly water, oil, and air.
Reins. The handle portion of a pair of tongs.
Scale. Gray flakes of oxide that form when steel is heated to forging temperatures. It will prevent welds from forming.
Scarf. (v.) To prepare an area for welding by upsetting it and tapering the edges to blend well. (n.) The part of the iron that has been scarfed.
Set down/setting down. To forge a step into the stock your are using.
Set hammer. A type of hammer that is struck by another hammer to create shoulders and corners that are sharper than can be achieved with a hand hammer.
Shoulder. A sudden change in dimensions, usually 90 degrees, to create a step or higher point.
Smithy. A blacksmith’s shop.
Spark testing. To rudimentarily determine the carbon content of an unknown steel by grinding it and looking at the sparks. The higher the carbon content, the more of a starburst the sparks will create.
Swage. Anvil tool that is used to create different shapes in steel. Can also be a stand-alone block with various shapes cut into it. Most common are V and half-round swages. They can be combined top and bottom to make consistently sized round and square sections.
Temper. To control the heating of hardened steel to reduce the amount of brittleness by altering the grain structure slightly.
Temper colors. Iron oxidation color changes that occur on polished steel when heated to specific temperatures.
Template. A pattern used to cut or forge out a repeatable shape.
Tuyere. The air inlet to the forge fire. Connects the air source with the firepot.
Upset. To increase the dimensions of a piece of steel by forcing it back into itself.
Work-harden. To hammer the iron cold to harden it slightly. Can lead to brittleness and cracks.