you will need:
1. heat
2.hammer
3.metal.

Just watch forged in fire

>>62079139
Start small.
Make a few general tools and some random Ren Faire items first.
Work it up to knives and make a bunch.
Then just keep making them bigger.

Also look for blacksmiths in your area. Call the historical society close to you and ask who they know. Stop in at the reenactment and talk with the people there.
Someone local can help you get started.

Oh, and don't forget protection. Ear pro and eye pro are important. Hammers are loud and staring at glowing hot metal for too long will blind you.

>>62079139
do you "actually" want to do blacksmithing or "just" make a sword ?
if you don't understand the difference, just get a basic gas forge, a 1kg smithing hammer, anvil (can be made from rails, guides easily found online) and buy tool steel stock
edge finish with a file and metal sandpaper, or just straight-up an angle grinder
basic leather cross-wrap for handle
the result will look fine
actually picking up blacksmithing is a years long process and you start hammering out nails and shit just to learn how to strike

Anvil is gonna be the hardest part. There's videos on YouTube of dudes using a hole in the ground and a hair dryer at the end of a tube to get cooking charcoal hot enough. But you need something hard flat and fuck off heavy for an anvil. Harbor freight sells anvil shaped objects that could probably work for a starter as long as you have it secured well to a good stump. Long ass pair of channel locks and a wood handled ball peen and your ready to find out that making swords is way harder than you thought. Get welding gloves too

>>62079219
Unironically this
It boggles my mind how a cookiecutter slop show with fake history lessons and mallninja knives somehow manages to be incredibly informative and interesting. I know a couple of guys who've gotten started by watching FIF

>>62079139
Build/buy a small forge. Buy a 2.5 or 3lb sledge with a smooth convex face. Buy some old rail road spikes to practice on as work material, and buy some coal. Watch youtube videos and get good.

>>62079139
Just buy the sword, you will never forge one.

>>62079268
For an anvil, if you can find scrapped rail lines, a section cut from one should be cheap and will work as an anvil until you feel like spending some money. As this other anon said >>62079263 channel locks and thick welding gloves will work to start with. First thing you should try to make though, is a pair of smithing tongs. Also, you'll need a large file, and maybe a bench grinder. I'm sure I'm missing a lot of stuff, but like I said in my previous post, watch youtube vids and learn.

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>>62079139
Just buy a sword from China, they've been making steel swords since 400 BC and some of their modern knife manufacturer's have been operating since the Ming Dynasty when they were forging jian. By the time you forge a really shitty knife you'll learn how much work is involved even in simple things and probably stop before getting anywhere near making a longsword.
>I have pic related from LK Chen and this thing is so sharp I'm scared to hand it to other people.

Wear earplugs when you start banging metal

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>>62079242
>Ear pro and eye pro are important. Hammers are loud and staring at glowing hot metal for too long will blind you.
Is this true?

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>>62079248
I want to make a sword.
>>62079263
I have a piece of steel for that.
>>62079219
>>62079264
Actually?
>>62079268
>>62079290
Thanks for the advice anons.
>>62079298
I had no idea it was actually that loud.

>>62079321
Yes.
Happens with glassblowers also.
The items that are glowing are putting off IR and even UV light.
Long term exposure can mess up your eyes.

The hearing issue is also about the exposure time.
While blacksmithinging you could be striking metal for hours, just listening to the high pitch ring of steel on steel.
The impulse level alone is often enough to do damage, especially with the high frequency and length of exposure time.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glassblower%27s_cataract

>>62079263
Not anymore. Vevor has some nice cast steel anvils now. I think they're even on Amazon. There is a 66 lb (light but usable) and a 100lb. It's not the dark age between affordable vintage anvils and 1k Peddinghaus anvils anymore, that's for sure. I think it's clone is even sold at Harbor Freight under one of the HF fake brand names.

>>62079290
Nah, just go to a metal supplier or scrap yard and get a large piece of steel stock. Yeah, it probably won't be hardened, but a rail is barely hard and way lighter. Medieval people used unhardened face anvils so you can too. Or get the Vevor like I said.

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>>62079139
Start watching youtube videos on blacksmithing. The bare minimum you'd need is a (gas) forge and an anvil, plus a hammer and a pair of tongs. And of course some steel to work on.
After that you'll want a post vice, a grinder of some sort (2x72 belt grinder would be the best but it's expensive), maybe some punches and hardy tools, etc.
Some tools you can make yourself, but honestly for a beginner it's not worth it.

To make a sword, you'll first want to start with knives then work your way up. But before making a knife, I'd recommend practicing the basics.
There are various projects people recommend to build your blacksmithing skills, like leaves. I would make a few leaves, spoons, hooks, bottle openers, chains, nails, etc. just to get the hang of hammering. Again, there are tons of youtube videos walking you through how to do these things.

>t. blacksmith anon

>>62079298
>>62079341
Hand hammering is really not very loud. At least it shouldn't be. Your gas forge will be louder. Wrap some chain around the base of your anvil if it rings when you hit it.

>>62079356
That's from staring into the fire. Don't do that.

>>62079356
It's just IR for forges. UV is from an arc if you're welding.

>>62079321
No, it's not loud enough to cause damage unless you're in an enclosed space WHICH YOU SHOULD NOT BE BECAUSE COAL FUMES WILL KILL YOU
If you're in some kind of industrial building with proper mechanical ventilation, then yes you need ear pro, unless the hall is massive.
But in general you actually want to avoid ear pro because the sounds your hammer, anvil and the metal you are forming are extremely important signals.
Another reason to use earpro would be if you're using a hydraulic hammer etc, the noise levels go up a lot with automated tools.
Eye pro is a big meme. Steels and irons don't glow anywhere near brightly enough to damage your eyes at the temperatures involved in forging.
The level of glow is the single most important factor. It's why a lot of blacksmiths worked during dawn and evening, in shaded areas, to be able to see the level of heat better
You shouldn't be getting anything in your eyes either
I'd only use eye pro if I was working with some super sketchy junkyard metal or casting lots of metal. Molten metal gets hot enough to cause enough light to fuck with your eyes

>>62079356
You have no idea what the fuck you are talking about.
>b-but wikipedia!
no

>>62079386
NTA but you want to wear eye protection anyways. Hot scale and sparks fly off of steel all the time. You don't want that in your eyes.

>>62079402
>Hot scale and sparks fly off
>scale
what
WHAT
DO YOU NOT CLEAN THE FUCKING SCALE OFF
ARE YOU JUST FUCKING HAMMERING IT IN
do you just have absolutely no idea WHAT THE FUCK YOU ARE DOING

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>>62079409
>anon doesn't know what wet forging is

>>62079402
eyepro, can confirm.
melted some 308 casings to make guards for knives, it started raining and i left my slag stick in the rain that had porous slag in it. next time i use the stick, steam explosion and molten brass covers my plastic facemask.

>>62079419
there is exactly 0% chance anyone on this board is wet forging, not to speak of doing it correctly
yes that includes me
and even then it can have an impact on quality, so only very casual hobbyists (who don't know how to do it) and traditional japanese smiths do it

Go to /diy, they have blacksmithing threads. That being said, the three hardest things to find / make are a good forge (made mine out of a truck brake drum packed with clay), an anvil (Harbor Freight had 110 lb Russian anvils years ago) and good blacksmithing coal. Charcoal burns too fast, anthracite is a bitch to get and stay lit. Getting a good forging fire and keeping it going is the first hurdle you will have to overcome. After that, start making simple hardware like hooks, forge tools like picks and scrapers for the fire, simple tongs, etc. Simple spear heads are a good starter blade project

>>62079444
>anthracite is a bitch to get and stay lit
kind of an understatement
I always end up using regular coal as a starter

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>>62079371
>>62079386
>>62079426
Thanks for all the info anons. I’ll probably wear eye pro and ear pro anyway.
>>62079444
I’ll look into /diy/ again soon. I haven’t seen any threads up though.
In terms of a forge- can I just use wood and an electric blower?

People will tell you that finding an anvil is the hardest part, but I found a solid one for a couple hundred on ebay with a massive stand included
People have also used railroad parts or just metal chunks on a wood base as an anvil, so I wouldnt worry about it too much
The forge is the hardest part in my opinion
You can just take 4 bricks and a blowtorch, but you will find very quickly that its very inefficient
Then you look deeper
>old propane tank
>ceramic woll
>rigidizer
>THIN layer of refractory cement
>brick inserts if you want to make damascus
Thats a more sustainable set up
Then you have to add the burners, which should be firing from an angle, not just top down
Speaking of the burners, people will tell you to just make one by yourself, but I made the experience that its a lot harder than people claim, so unless you are very confident in your diy abilities it might be better to buy one
Then you gotta find the right design and hope it actually works
Im now on my third version of my forge and it still doesnt get hot enough to make damascus so im already planning the unretire my second version and make some adjustments to improve it because damascus is pretty much what everyone wants to make anyways
Sucks that for damascus you need a hydraulic press, which you can either shell out 30k for or build yourself which will be very hard if you dont know anything about welding, electronics or hydraulics (im lacking in the hydraulics department, dont know shit about it)
Finally, assuming you made a basic forge and anvil, you need a bucket to quench your knife/sword in
I personally use lineseed oil for horses since its quite cheap but you can also use motor oil depending on the type of steel
Then you also need a way to heat treat
I use my old oven I dont use, but that wont dit a sword
If you dont temper it, it will shatter as soon as you hit anything with it
(Cont.)

>>62079439
Nigga the fuck are you talking about?
You put water on the anvil and your hammer. It's not complicated.

>>62079468
>can I just use wood
Wood is a really bad idea because you can't do basic coal things like packing and you have to be constantly adding new fuel and it can't be in firewood form; needs to be chopper finer
Similarly charcoal burns too fast. You end up adding fuel constantly.
They're both good starters to get the coal burning in the forge, use them to make a central fire then once forge is hot shift them to the edge to finish burning off (easy modern alternative is a gas blowtorch into a smaller pack of coal)
You really, really, really want coal (coke/anthracite) because it burns well once you get it going and it burns long. You need to do one fuel increase per a 2-3 hour session unless you're absolutely blasting
They're more cost effective too in terms of money:heat ratio
>and an electric blower?
If it's a very high pressure one, yes. I used a mechanical ventilation unit for a while. One of those that's loud enough to start really drowning out human speech. It worked great.
The main issue with burning ANYTHING in a forge is that it gets gunked up. The fuel itself, that is, and oxygen no longer gets where it needs to be and the fire starts to choke to death. So you need a very high pressure blower or bellows.
Bellows are good because you do a few very quick, forceful pumps to push what is mostly ash out from amongst the fuel
High presure blower should a) automatically blow the gunk out if on high blast b) be temporarily adjusted so that it blows it out gradually
Personally I found a blower too fucking loud, ended up struggling with traditional leather bellows for a while (but they got completely fucked in the winter because lol -40c) so I changed to a japanese box bellows which is just a wood crate with a plunger in it.

>>62079139
I’d say try make a knife via stock removal first. That will teach you basically everything but actually shaping hot metal with a hammer(grinding, heat treating, making handles and other fittings, sharpening, polishing). In general it makes a lot more sense to learn how to make knives then try make a sword, but if you just want to make a sword you could probably find a suitably large leaf spring, heat it, flatten it, grind it into shape, heat treat it and sharpen it

>>62079483
Finally, if you dont want to spend half your life hand filing and sanding a blade, you're going to want to get a belt grinder and some belts
You can buy one, but they're usually to weak to put in any real work
I built my own on a 400V motor and aluminium struts
Thankfully i have a 400V powerconnection in my workshop otherwise a more basic one would have to do
Probably would also be finde but its not optimal imo
I wouldnt go for the cheaper ones you can buy at your hardware store
I had one of those but at the slightest pressure it just gave up
If you got cash, go to etsy or something and buy a precut set and then add your motor
Final thoughts: if you want to make an actual sword, you will be very limited by the length of the blade on all fronts
>getting an even heat is harder
>finding a canister large enough for quenching will be difficult
>heat treating will be very difficult at that size
>grinding a sword takes time and skill
Instead of making a sword, I would recommend making a medium sized combat or kitchen knife first
Blacksmithing is a skill like any other and there are many aspects to master
If you feel more confident, try making a symmetrical dagger
Good luck getting the grind right to look perfect
Also one thing I forgot:
If you dont have the right tools to grab your metal, you will not have a good time
I have one basic pair of flat tongs and that is not cutting it at all
Im too lazy to make more a the moment, but getting good enough of a grip to actually properly grab the billet is important and without the right tongs basically impossible

>>62079547
One last cont. Because I forgot
If you have no experience at all heres the steps I would recommend:
>make a forge (coal or gas, whichever you prefer)
>get an anvil or anvil adjacent object
>buy a hammer
>buy some welding gloves and safety glasses
>buy some of those thick round rebarb metal things (no idea what you call em) and make some tools
>get a quenching bucket and oil
>get a belt grinder
>find a way to temper your steel
>have fun
You can worry about everything else when you finished your first blade
Dont get discouraged if it doesnt work straight away
Keep practicing, have fun and experiment until you find what works for yoi

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>>62079563
I appreciate all the advice anon. Thank you very much. <3
I’m going to definitely save what you typed.

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In terms of a forge- if someone wanted to make a longsword- then would they need a forge at least the length of the sword or could different sections of the sword be heated?

>>62079691
You wouldn't want to heat the full length even if you could. You rough it out a bit at a time as you go, slowly forming the steel into a blade. As you get further down the length of the blade, make sure and keep the blade verticle as you pull it from the forge, as the weight of the blade can and will fold the blade as you move it to the anvil.

>>62079139
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHta7NIJ9npbTNOR4JQW_IlDnCTxM2wV4&si=OZSsUgc_lm6DmRF4

>>62079642
Wrote all that on the way to work this morning so something thoughts were a bit disjointed but if you have any more questions let me know
I'm by no means an expert, but I had to go through the trouble of looking through a shit ton of resources to get the baseline level of knowledge I have
I would want to spare you that as much as possible
>>62079691
Like >>62079792
No
Hot metal "softens" which means you can change its form by hammering it
but it will also change form if you bend it
And the weight of the blade itself is enough to bend it
From personal experience I can say that even small blades can bend from their own weight when you work with them
I can also say from personal experience that a warped blade cant really be fixed and has to go back to the forge

>>62079402
Also grinding and brushing are no joke. Think like a professional MODERN metalworker but use old methods. Not every old custom was smart. Foamies even clean your ears. I wear those when grinding or making other noise (needle scalers etc).

>>62079547
If in CONUS you can easily use 3-phase equipment with a VFD or RPC, and you can easily build an RPC though I scored one cheap (which took a while).

Learn metalworking if your goal is metalworking. Buy a sword (those L.K. Chen are dirt cheap) if your goal is to have a sword. Learning metalworking is far more valuable than a larp toy but be ready to spend a modest amount outfitting your workshop (or copy mobile smithy setups but you still require appropriate space).

>>62079219
ehhhhh
it's a fun gameshow but it's really not representative of how you would or should go about actually making a sword, everything is intentionally retarded from the scenarios to the materials to the tests, because "we asked four experienced smiths to go do the same thing they've done three dozen times already" isn't entertaining TV, you can learn what some techniques involved in sword making are by watching it but at a very surface level only a couple steps above hollywood forging scenes

>>62079409
hammering scale in isn't really a problem like people think, it's usually microns thick and falls off as soon as you swing the hammer.
what people are running into is usually more a problem with not controlling their heats well enough, getting it too hot and working it too cold, or over-oxygenating the fire. Just sweep your anvil off when it starts to pile up and you can basically ignore brushing until you're on the last couple finish heats. Also make sure your hammer face is smooth and the edges are dressed.

>>62079792
You have to be able to heat the full thing to heat treat, but it's usually possible to get a decently even heat by moving it around and letting the heat spread out. If you've got a very small forge and can't heat it fast enough to get the whole thing hot before one part cools off you'll be limited by that, but it's usually not a problem.
Outside of heat treating you only need to heat the part where you want the metal to move, as said.


Anyway, forging is a relatively small part of making a sword, even if you forge as close to shape as possible to minimize grinding there's still a ton of grinding, and polishing and fit up and sharpening, and those are the parts that make your sword nice. I think a lot of people go into it thinking they'll hammer out a finished basically finished sword and then lose motivation when they spend one day on hammering and five on everything else. Maybe start with a knife to get a feel for which parts you enjoy.

>>62079139
MAPP torch, iron, piece of rail, some coal for carbon.
it's not hard it's just a lot of work.

>>62084984
>some coal for carbon
What did anon mean by this?

>>62079321
longterm, yes. I have permanent hearing damage now in my 30s from 60 to 120 minutes a day 5 days a week in a loud (but not crazy loud) machine shop as a kid. think lawnmower loud.

>>62085403
Just guessing here but maybe he means to infuse the metal with carbon similar to how blacksmiths hundreds of yesrs ago added animal bones to the fire to strengthen blades by adding carbon to the steel?
Obviously they didnt know what they were doing, but maybe anon wants to use carbon in coal to add carbon to soft steel?
I dont know man
I dont even know if it would actually work that way

>>62087356
You shouldn't smith with iron, it is too soft. So the carbon to make steel.

Biggest challenge is getting the mix right, you want steel but not pig iron.

>>62079139
I was an apprentice blacksmith for a year.
You're asking "how do I get started with building planes? I want to make my own fully functional f35"

Start with making a simple forge, take out a second morgage for an anvil and watch your wrists go bye-bye from your dumb ass striking cold metal cause you are going to try to teach yourself by asking /k/ of all places.

Start small with knives or other utilitarian things like door hinges. Swords are extremely difficult and a lot of things can go wrong.

>>62079483
NOT EVERY BLADE HAS TO BE FUCKING DAMASCUS

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>>62087736

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>>62087303
I think taking welding in high school
did the same to me too. Being in an enclosed shop with grinders and chop saws running, and cutting through metal with no ear pro is very loud.

>>62079139
start by making knives.

making a sword with no experience is like saying "I have a roll of carbon fiber, how do I win the indy 500?"

once you have a few knives under your belt, start trying daggers - quillon daggers will teach you all the component parts of a sword at 1/4 the size and a fraction of the cost. slowly work your way up.

The cutler's art, and blacksmithing are not the same thing - as >>62079248 said. Bladesmithing is very different in its processes, and blacksmithing is much more technical in things like hammer control. Learning where your priorities are is part of the skill-set you want to learn.

>>62079321
that is absolutely true. PPE is your no.1 priority. looking at hot metal causes cataracts. hearing loss is a risk - hamemr and anvil is akin to firing a rifle every 2-3 seconds for an entire day, and it will destroy your upper range hearing. Anglegrinders and belt sanders are loud - angle grinders with cutoff discs on sheet stock while you're chopping out blanks are about 100-120 decibels when you're standing right next to it. Using grinders throws particulates which will fuck your lungs like smoking 50 a day, and sparks and shit can cause injury.
and remember, forging accidents injure you. casting accidents will _maim_ you for life.

>>62087303
And people called me autistic for putting earplugs in when I mowed the lawn

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I have no advice to give you op but here's a piece of rebar I hammered and grinded into a shitty knife and wrapped in paracord for a handle
I used a propane forge that I bought from Amazon for 80 dollars but it wouldn't be large enough for a sword, probably the longest blade possible would be about 12-18"

I would advise you to gain proficiency with cold smithing. Grinding, hammering, polishing, actually measuring what you make.
The tools for that cost very little, and you wouldn't want to invest in a forge if you were just forging random shit

>>62091188
I think you need finer grits anon, looks like you used an angle grinder. And if you actually did then whatever, just get a polishing disk set

>>62085403
You can carbonise steel in a lot of ways, some of the crudest being to plunge red hot steel into an overcarboonized forge before quenching. If you were starting with c100 stock and didn't have the tools to really fold it etc that might actually be a good option. Comes with the risk of shattering blade in quench or cratering

>>62091256
I left the black oxide on the flat as an anti rust measure and the grinder I used was indeed quite gritty, but it was just rebar anyway, so I don't think it was worth finishing any more than that

>>62087356
It would work, but would take hours and still has a limit to penetration (~.030" in relatively ideal cases, but realistically in a home shop without automatic temperature control like in a kiln or ht furnace probably less. The ancients carburized many thin strips of wrought iron then forge welded together as one method of early steel making. But for real just buy that shit. It will be many in times cheaper than the fuel costs alone.

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>>62091089
I do too anon. I put in earplugs any time I’m on or using a machine actually.
Even in church (the speakers and music is way too loud)
>>62091188
That’s actually really impressive. Thanks for the encouragement, friend.
>>62091238
What’s cold smithing and what tools do I need for it? I hammered a piece of metal one with years ago. I took a campfire, put a blower to it, got the metal red hot and hit it with a hammer. It did flatten out.
I’m just probably gonna take and dig a rectangular hole and put coal in it if anything.
>>62092214
>>62091282
>>62087356
So say I have a piece of unknown steel. I can make it harder by just getting it hot in coal? Is there a limit to how hard I can get it? How do you even know how hard to get it?

>>62092301
There's a simple forge design on the smithing forums called Just a Box of Dirt, which is pretty much what it sounds like. Costs next to nothing.

I would advise against using unknown steel if you want it hardened. Technically you can make it work but it is completely not worth it. Actual known steel is very affordable in the modern age. Salvage steel from springs and files is not fully known generally but you have enough clues due to it's origins to mostly guess the heat treatability most of the time. Carburizing has limits both to depth of penetration of the carbon AND level of carbon imparted. Back in the medieval days they didn't have anything better. But now higher carbon stuff is dime a dozen. As I said before, you'd be consuming many times the cost of just buying a known standard steel that will be higher quality and higher carbon just to fuel the furnace to carburized an inferior product.

>>62092354
So if I were to make a longsword, what’s arguably the best steel to use?

>>62092370
1045, 1060, 1075, or 1090.

>>62092442
1095*

>>62092446
>>62092442
>>62092370
1084 is the better choice.
its an eutectic steel so there's no soak time. and its curie temperature is the same as its phase shift, meaning its easy to gauge if its at quenching temperature.

>>62093891
To clarify:
there are a lot of steels out there which are good for swords. 6150, 5160. EN45, 1095, S7, and so on.
The best steel in the world, be it some uber-alloy matrix composite powdered steel if badly heat-treated, is going to be worse than a basic steel that's well heat-treated, quenched, and then drawn back to 50-52HrC .

As such, for a beginner, the best option is a steel which is as simple as possible - and 1084 is the choice for that reason.

IF op has a digital thermal control kiln or salt baths, a tank of Parks' 50, and a low-temp kiln for a controlled temper, then yes, 6150 or something like that will be a better option, but if they're wanting to make their first sword, we can assume that such technologies are absent - and recommend accordingly.

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>>62079139
>I want to make a longsword.
The type of person who can work their way up to something like that is not the type of person who whips out their phone and makes a Google tier thread on the wrong board.

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>>62093965
It’s actually the right board, and maybe if you leave your desk, you can someday post on your phone too.

>>62093891
>>62093949
Based response and advice. Thank you very much, anons.