This is something I would like to get into as a Hobbie. The thing that's stopping me is a anvil thoes things are pricey. My pole barn 30x40 is really not big enough to do it,I have it split in 4 different area. 1 for welding,1 for trapping, 1 for mechanics and the other end is for odds and ends.

I'm not black Smith but I spent all day yesterday taking the boys to their monthly hammer in. I have worked every day it has been and my wife has been taking them. It was fun. I didn't plan on being there but a few hrs but spent from 9am tell 530pm.

All I you would nne is a place to store your tools anvil and small forge. You can get lp forge that are small and ld just over 100$ I think.. just take it outside when you want to use it.

Propane is used a lot because you can put it in a corner when not in use there are kits you can buy to build your own forge, the anvil is a good tool to have for beating things on, a poor man’s anvil used to be a piece of railroad rail but an anvil is nicer.

I've posted this on here before , but a good place to find an anvil for a reasonable price is at a scrap yard.

Go to your local scrap yard and ask nicely if they see any anvil come in for scrap offer to pay 2X-3X the scrap metal value. Give them your name and contact info on a piece of paper to hang on the wall.

I have gotten several anvils this way. I flipped them for a nice profit. I kept a nice one for myself.

I bet an anvil would be best, but I've seen video of Nepalese Kukri makers making beautiful knives sitting on the ground with a clay charcoal forge and a chunk of railroad rail....out of Mercedes Benz truck leaf springs....
Anything else has got to be an improvement, lol

I'll look into getting a chunk of track thanks.

What I use, yes an anvil would be nice but you can do a lot without one you just have to get going and work on it



Last knife I made, Not perfect but works for me, I had planned on giving it to my brother but my daughter grabbed it and claimed it for herself

Darn nice looking knife nightlife !

I also use railroad track for a anvil it works quite well for me when it's needed .

I do my own Farrier work. Sometimes you have to be creative with a Lame horse. I only have an anvil and small gas Forge and Bar stock to make a special shoe.

I have two 16-inch railroad rail. They work great for me.

I wanted to do blacksmithing work but when I retired the shoulders hurt too much to think about swinging a hammer onto steel for any length of time. A friend was doing it with a fan hooked to a Weber grill for his forge and a piece of track for the anvil.

Beautiful knife

I have a hand crank coal forge. About all I have made is a set of tongs and trap stakes. 100's of trap stakes.

What I use, yes an anvil would be nice but you can do a lot without one you just have to get going and work on it



Last knife I made, Not perfect but works for me, I had planned on giving it to my brother but my daughter grabbed it and claimed it for herself
[/quote]
Beautiful knife[/quote]

Thanks, the reason I was going to give it to my brother is he has smaller hands then me and I made the handle to small for comfort, so my next build I plan on correcting that and making it with a larger handle, or maybe several with different size and shape handles and see what fits best

But it does hold a sharp long lasting edge hairsplitting in fact

I have a forge and anvil... does that count?? :-). BTW a BRAND new anvil can be had for 1-2K. Alecsteele.com might a good place to check.

Another idea is to inlet a big ole sledge hammer head(10+lbs) into a big stump

Ouch....they have gone up in price quite a bit.
I paid $100 for my 125lb anvil (used) about 10 years ago.