Building my own shop

My mentor from Madison pulled me aside one day to inform me I needed to get more practice than I was getting every other month. You loose a lot of muscle memory and creativity only once in a while, it was now time to build my own forging space. So we converted a 10'x12' shed into just such a place. I covered the walls with fire resistant concrete, and the upper with corregated metal to reflect heat. A used two burner forge and pre-owned anvil would be my start in a great process. I would later add a layout table, drill press, 4"x36" belt sander, metal rack, and two types of vises. I took great precautions to keep from burning the place down with fire extinghausers, water buckets, and a C02 monitor. Still if you drop hot metal on a wood floor, you have 4 seconds to pick it up.

  I would be out there every other night even in the middle of winter until the temperature gets down to about 10°F where everything is cold and even wood sticks to you hands. You can see pictures of my shed on the contacts page along with some of the primitive work I would hammer out in that second year. S hooks may seem basic but once you have the hang of it you can then move onto other useful but easy items of everyday life. My greatest challenges were bottle openers pounded out of 3/4" bar stock, I just could not get the hole punched out evenly. Every item has a little secret in it to make that part perfect every time, once you know the "trick" it is time to move onto something else. The Fredericks cross has that special trick to bending it after the cut to  make the perfect diamond in the center. I have now given away dozens of them and no two look exactly the same. For me, I get bored easy so I like to make more than one thing at a time. While one thing is warming in the forge, another piece is in the vise being bent while a third might be ready for grinding. 

  This summer, we extended our shop to a 8'X8' tent outside the shed in order to operate a coal forge. The only problem is that it smokes a lot for 15 minutes of green coal and needs to be run for 2-3 hours in order to get the most out of your investment. I am learning how to forge weld and make larger and more complex items. I am so close to making a finished tomahawk but just can't make the final forge weld on the blade. Stop  by and give me a hand.