How-to Resources
Helping other blacksmiths tackle new projects.
Over the years, I’ve made sketches and instruction guides to help other blacksmiths tackle new projects. As I talk to more and more aspiring smiths, I get more and more requests for this kind of information. So I’ve decided to offer some of these learning guides for you to download and add to your blacksmithing library. Each project will include sketches and clear descriptive text to explain projects you can try at home. Supplemented with photographs of finished work, these tutorials will make even complex projects approachable. Please enjoy the samples posted below, and let me know what else you’d like to see.
Forging a Flower from Tubing
This tutorial shows a way to make a flower from steel tubing, as shown to me by Missouri blacksmith Don Asbee in the early 1990's. You can get beautiful results with this method that you can use to decorate any number of projects. You can change the size of the tube...
Make a Spring Fuller Without Welding
A spring fuller is a useful tool for reducing cross section on stock. A recent project required construction of a spring fuller for a new anvil. For someone who doesn't have electric welding capability, this method of spring fuller construction is a viable...
Forging an Octopus
If you find this tutorial helpful, please consider contributing to my lifelong book addiction. Thanks!The Octopus I first read about forging an octopus in 1991, in a newsletter from the Rocky Mountain Smiths. Jim Fleming was the editor, and he ran an issue...
The Adjustable-height Anvil Stand
Tutorial to build an Anvil Stand that can be adjusted for height One of the first things a new blacksmith needs to do is mount an anvil on a functional stand. It may take some time to work out the proper height for your anvil, though, or you may share a shop with...
The Russian Rose Tutorial
If you find this tutorial helpful, please consider contributing to my lifelong book addiction. Thanks!Detailed Write-up of the Construction of the Russian Rose There is a theme park in southwest Missouri, near Branson, called Silver Dollar City. In the...