Hot steel

  Forging it ain't as easy as those guys on Youtube make it look . The problem around here is that there is nowhere to get instruction except the craft school . And they tend to cater to the "I've got more money than sense" crowd . I mean 350 bucks for a 2 day course in knife making and materials are extra just isn't in my budget . Lucky for me I have a blacksmith neighbor who is willing to point and laugh , then tell me where I went wrong ... and the thing is , you can often just heat it back up and correct the mistake . Right now I'm making tools to make other tools to make "stuff" , maybe some knives , but more likely things like hooks for a pan rack , drawer pulls and cabinet handles , other small household type items . And very likely things for the shop . The whole reason I started down this road was because the neighbor referenced above didn't have time to reshape a couple of  chunks of steel for a screwless vise for the milling machine . Who am I kiddin' , I've wanted to do this for some time now and that was a great excuse . Now if only all this sheetrock would mud and tape itself , I'd have more time to burn my fingers fumbling my way to blacksmithing hackdom .