Ever wanted to make a simple knife, spoon, fork, anything out of metal but don't have the stuff for it? It's not as hard as you think to get it started. First I'll be talking about the coffee can forge.
As you can see here, it's pretty small and doesn't take up a huge amount of shop space. The can itself can be made out of a coffee can or something similar. These can be made cheaply as well. Here is a quick guide to making a coffee can forge.
https://www.instructables.com/id/Coffee-Can-Forge/
You can also make it out of white fire brick by carving a hole in one. The trick is to aim the torch so you get some cyclonic action going. Otherwise you probably won't get your metal hot enough to work with. There are other knife making forges that range anywhere from a hundred dollars to a few thousand. This one I paid 300 for.
And here is the knife I'm currently working on,
This knife is made out of a piece of rebar. Not the best steel to be working with I know, but it's cheap and easy to practice on. Also rebar allows you to use it's length so you don't have to buy tongs to hold your piece in the fire. So now that you have a simple forge and stick rebar, what do you beat it with? Well I suggest thrift stores. They often have a cheap tool section. Just make sure your hammers don't have waffled heads. You can also buy cheap ball peen hammers online. Now that you have your tools you need something to beat the hot steel on. This is probably the hardest and most expensive part of the whole process. Anvils can go from as cheap as 50 dollars to literally thousands of dollars. If you're super cheap then look for a solid slab of metal you can work with. I started out with a foot long slice of rail road track. You can often find chunks of rail road track along the rails that the DOT (department of transportation) didn't bother cleaning up. Those work great. You can also find practice material out there as well. I'm sure everyone has come across rail road spikes from time to time.
This is a basic set up that can get much much more complex and expensive. Better forges, better steel, better tools. But if you're just going to dabble or don't have the space, don't spend hundreds or thousands of dollars for a set up you can't or wont use.
