1. What tools are a must have you would buy for a novice? I've looked at some cheaper anvils just to start off, I'll need some type of crucible, but I have no idea what to look for in quality. I've worked in construction, so I have hammers of various sizes and weights. Most of my tools are finer screwdrivers, sockets, and saws.
1) Anvil Shaped Object, or one of those ACIO pattern anvils will get you started - you don't really need a proper anvil to start making stuff just something you can be sure wont catch fire or crumble under protracted use. The first anvils where made of stone and they where quite commonly used even in Europe, India an Asia in pourer parts of the world until recently, historically anvils where a lot smaller than people think an where not shaped like the modern London Pattern everyone
thinks is a anvil. Historically anvils where quite small if you look at the anvils from the
mastermyr find it will give you a better idea of what I am talking about and that guy was forging his own tools and tools for sale and he was by no means an oddity - I've made more than a few in that size range for myself and for resale and use them just as much as my more modern ones, I've got a BIG just shy of a Ton anvil I got from a ship yard that was being sold and I paid less for it than the smaller anvils everybody went nuts for because I was the only fucker who could move it and it's of limited utility as your hardly ever going to use something that large - but ignore jewellers an other Cast Iron anvils especially the cheap ones great for setting soft copper rivets for leather workers or larger jewellery work but for Smiths work they are useless.
2) Tongs, Flat, Bolt, Wolf and "Blade" Tong's as a beginner should be what you go for here, the commercial sets are a great starting point but you should learn to make your own as one of your first projects there are lot's of great resources on this but when I was training an building my first tools I was given a pair of Tongs an was told to "Copy that" an left to my own devices till I had come up with a functional tool.
3) Anvil Tools, These I will say make your own you can buy them but it's more educational and once you have BASIC tool's an hammer / fire skills you can make in quick order and provide a wonderful learning experience in quite a few realms such as sizing, drawing, upsetting, forming and aneling (these tools are with a few rare exceptions never hardened), and your VERY first one should be a Hold Down for 2 reasons the first is this gives you a nice way to hold work on your Anvil or ASO and secondly it's also your first commercial project because Carpenters and Cabinet makers use them and are a easy an profitable way to make your education pay for it's self and that's a really important subject.
4) Most of the tools you currently have are not likely all that useful (apart from Files and a drill) your hammers especially so, Smiths hammers are not hardened as much as a Claw hammer, Ball Penn and Sledge an Lump hammers are, Smiths hammers are softer because they are working with Hot material most of the time so over time will soften but your also striking metal on metal and against other hardened metal so a hard hammer will fuck up your Anvil face or chip it an the hammer and this is not something you want you want your working face to be smooth an your tools as unmarked as it leaves artifacts in the work and can also hurt you, but there are other reasons. The good news is you can buy a smithing hammer cheaply and if you need to reuse what you have you can anneal the face in a fire or with a blow torch if you have to, but it's important you get a hammer YOU can swing for hours with a handle that fits your hand AND SWING.
Hammer work hot or cold is defined by the level of control an comfort you have with the tool my day to day 95% of my working day is spent with a Czechoslovakian Pattern (In the US, just a Stubby in the UK) with a shallow rounding face and a cross peen and weighs about 32oz - this size an weight is determined by a lot of factors like height, weight (as in your ass not the tool), general fitness, your confidence and frankly mood.
4) Files, and a Rasp, Wire Brush, Files a varied set of them are a fucking must they can do things you can not do what a hammer can't and they hide a lot of crimes and are as a tool about 3000 years old at this point for metal work, get a cheap set an learn to use them correctly and graduate to better ones as your work and experience dictates but don't throw the old ones away they are a nice source of material and have there use when testing hardness when you've outgrown them by listening an feeling for skate.
Rasps - These are not woodworkers Rasps, no these are an allied trades tool the Farrier (a Smith doesn't shoe a horse, (most cant an much to the consternation of my Mrs I am amongst that group) call around your local farriers and see if they will give you or sell you some of there worn out rasps (if you don't have any local Shoe Heads ebay has them for buttons) these are hard wide cutting files designed to meld a biological material and a metal into a seamless fit with each other and work with HOT iron an steel really well as a preparation for later work, with a more detailed file (and I am over simplifying this for brevity).
Wire Brush, just go to a cheap home goods or DIY shop and buy the wire brush sold for cleaning patios or concrete etc you don't need a block scrubber, but you do need one as it cleans of the Slag an Oxide layer from your hot work and this is the difference between cheap nasty an mass produced and refined expensive work, Iron (an Steel) forms an oxide layer when heating a cooling the most common most people know is Rusting but it happens at high or even moderate Temperatures as the material is oxidising it's just not brown an shitty and also dumping carbon an other impurities on the surface this knocks them off, these are hard an undesirable inclusions in your work that lead to failure points composed of various elements and are heavy in silica and carbon the carbons not the issue but the other materials are.
Indecently if you get a pure brass brush (not just a brass coated one) and run it over your hot work you can give the Surface a nice brass coating, you can do it with copper to a point but it's not worth doing, but this is where the term "Brassed off" comes from.
6) Your brain, this is the BEST and Sharpest tool you have in your tool box but it needs maintenance, you can watch all the videos, read all the books an chew all the shit but YOU are the guy behind the hammer, it's down to you to learn how to make something fit something an make it work, Smith are not machinists we became them an are oddly weirdly good machinists but our materials and how we work them is not the same we have to guestimate from our own experience a good 99% of measurements and because our work is consistently imperfect "plans" are a rough guide and a diagram of how it should work at best, don't get pissed that you can't his an exact dimension outside of pure luck that rarely happens and that's what fitting with files an stones is for.
If you have any specific questions
@Haywire please ask them here or feel free to drop me a DM, and if your based in the UK or EU I might be able to pass you a few bits to get you started.
And I need to write another post about foundry work on its own as that is a different discipline, historically let alone today few Smiths have, I do have it but it's best covered in its own reply.
What's the most exotic metal/alloy you've worked with?
Titanium without a doubt, it in of its self is exotic, but there are lots of grades an alloys that complicate things and I'd never work it without a machine be it on a lathe or a press it's one of those materials I respect but just fucking hate and I'm extremely glad I don't have to work with it much or at all and it's a very stressy material in a way you can't just anneal and flatten it a few times to make it work. It has technical fracture shear points that makes working it by hand like a normal metal nearly impossible and it requires a lot of special processes or heat ranges a normal smith or machinist cant hold or work at for prolonged periods if at all. I work with some rather exotic steels for a few clients some of them are not public as well but nothing approaches Ti as a material for fucking weird.
If you want a more "Normal" material acting odd it's inconel it forges like slow glass its a lovely material to work with both as a smith or a machinist and the two skills working together can do some amazing shit.
