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The Crucible in Oakland

CABilly

CABilly

Splitter
Joined
Jun 7, 2008
Location
Bay Area
Moto(s)
R5 350
Name
Billy
So I'm hooked on that show Forged in Fire and now all I can think about is hammering out my own sick blades. I figure rather than spending upward of a grand and pissing off my neighbors and burning my house down, I'd look into professional guidance. Lo and behold, you can get exactly that at The Crucible.

Has anyone taken any of their courses? A few guys from work agree that the black smithing course sounds fun. But at $415 it's not cheap. Basically two courses would fund a forge, anvil, tools, and materials. But the instruction should more than cover the difference.

I know we have a resident bladesmith and at least one blacksmith/farrier. Any of you guys have any experience there?
 
Billy, I thought about buying an Anvil, just because I wanted something to beat on, just for kicks. So I started pricing them. A real, genuine, blacksmithing anvil, was between $2500 and $3500. I didn't want one that bad.
 
I've seen heavy ones (not leather or jewelry) on Craigslist for $500 and up (steeply). They're all far away, though. There's a whole shop's worth of blacksmithing stuff for sale in Santa Rosa, looks like a lifetime's worth of accumulation.
 
corndog67 said:
Billy, I thought about buying an Anvil, just because I wanted something to beat on, just for kicks. So I started pricing them. A real, genuine, blacksmithing anvil, was between $2500 and $3500. I didn't want one that bad.
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CABilly said:
I've seen heavy ones (not leather or jewelry) on Craigslist for $500 and up (steeply). They're all far away, though. There's a whole shop's worth of blacksmithing stuff for sale in Santa Rosa, looks like a lifetime's worth of accumulation.
Click to expand...

That's funny, every year I look for one for my dad for Xmas or his bday. Had no idea they were that pricey and the old ones are tough to determine maker sometimes.

I've seen rail road ties turned into anvils, not the same but work well too .
 
corndog67 said:
Billy, I thought about buying an Anvil, just because I wanted something to beat on, just for kicks. So I started pricing them. A real, genuine, blacksmithing anvil, was between $2500 and $3500. I didn't want one that bad.
Click to expand...

The poor mans anvil is a section of railroad track. There is some pretty good steel in them. And yeah a legit anvil is PRICEY!
 
I've taken a few blacksmithing classes.

I can definitely tell you that the amount of work that goes into making a sword is well beyond a reasonable amount of work to get done in a class.

I made some really nice ornamented Steel cooking Chopsticks that took me about 4 hours worth of concentrated work.
 
I made knives years ago, trust me the classes are cheap, it takes years to set a shop up.
And you won't piss off anyone.
 
Start off buying a blank blade and grinding it to shape and heat treating... making handles etc.

yyou're going to have to master the grinding and sharpening steps anyway, and the complication of sucking at pounding on metal can be tackled later.

watch youtube videos, they're way more honest than any tarted up reality shows
 
CABilly said:
So I'm hooked on that show Forged in Fire and now all I can think about is hammering out my own sick blades. I figure rather than spending upward of a grand and pissing off my neighbors and burning my house down, I'd look into professional guidance. Lo and behold, you can get exactly that at The Crucible.

Has anyone taken any of their courses? A few guys from work agree that the black smithing course sounds fun. But at $415 it's not cheap. Basically two courses would fund a forge, anvil, tools, and materials. But the instruction should more than cover the difference.

I know we have a resident bladesmith and at least one blacksmith/farrier. Any of you guys have any experience there?
Click to expand...

Haha! I watched that show and looked up the Crucible too. I put a gift cert for the Crucible on my xmas list. I'm hoping a weekend will satisfy my itch to hammer n forge, lol
 
Jim Austin, one of the best working blacksmiths in North America has his shop in West Oakland, and he teaches classes as well. Some of his classes are a little cheaper, but they might be more focused than a general starting point.

http://forgedaxes.com/?page_id=148

Also, be sure to check out Rory May (Dirty Smith) on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/user/isolatedreality

And yeah, a proper smithing anvil would be a nice to have, but if you're just looking to get started and want to see if beating on metal is your thing, a section of railroad and a coffee can forge will take you pretty far without spending a ton of money.
 
I'm just jealous how they can take a hammer or an axe or a piece of crap and turn it into instant workable art. Sure it takes hours/days and they rely on years experience but they are pretty skilled and amazing artists.
 
As long as you are not annoyed by burners and if you have a lot of money to spend, the Crucible seems like a good place to go.
 
It's been my life. In High school, I worked at a welding shop, after school and full time in the summers.

Gradulated (notice I never learned how to spell, or anything else they taught in school :laughing ), and went to trade school to become a machinist, Tool&Die Maker, Trouble shooter in big name factories.

Gradulated #1 from there. Thiokol Chemical (Major contractor in space and defense when we had silo's with inter-continental ballistic thingys with Nuke warheads on them) came recruting and said they had never seen scores as high as mine, come out of any trade school.

Would I volunteer to take the tests they gave at MIT, and other Mechanical Engineering Universities. They said I scored in the upper 10% of them.

Just sayin...I know metal and what you can do with it.

But to the Black Smith question... I find I've got nothin, I can put in post.
 
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louemc said:
It's been my life. In High school, I worked at a welding shop, after school and full time in the summers.

Gradulated (notice I never learned how to spell, or anything else they taught in school :laughing ), and went to trade school to become a machinist, Tool&Die Maker, Trouble shooter in big name factories.

Gradulated #1 from there. Thiokol Chemical (Major contractor in space and defense when we had silo's with inter-continental ballistic thingys with Nuke warheads on them) came recruting and said they had never seen scores as high as mine, come out of any trade school.

Would I volunteer to take the tests they gave at MIT, and other Mechanical Engineering Universities. They said I scored in the upper 10% of them.

Just sayin...I know metal and what you can do with it.

But to the Black Smith question... I find I've got nothin, I can put in post.
Click to expand...

Hey, small world! I'm a top notch video producer, but that doesn't have anything to do with this discussion either!


Thanks for reminding me why I stopped posting here.
 
Abacinator said:
Isn't there someone on here who's a farrier?
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Oh, hello. :laughing




Why does everyone want to make a goddamn knife? Would you learn to repair a 4 stroke motor by starting on a Jaguar 12 cylinder?



Okayokay. 5 beers in, rant semi-over. But as I said on a beer brewing forum just one day ago, 'when you can by a nice knife for $15~$75 why would you try to make one with no skills whatsoever?'
Learn hammer control. Make some hooks, hinges, fishes, snakes, candle holders, whatever.
Knives are a difficult, PITA, not worth the time investment, did I say PITA? investment. Honestly. I have some hoof knifes I started about a year ago. Easy to knock out the blanks. The polishing, annealing, finishing, hardening, quenching, tempering, polishing, sharpening...
Unless it's something you can't get elsewhere, just buy the damned knife from a pro.

As Always: IMHO, YMMV, grumpy dragon, etc. :p
 
Actually, and having said all that vitriol. If anyone wants to drive out here when I have spare time... I'm happy to teach the basics. You want to learn how to mash some steel, I'll donate the propane/coal, and anvil time. It's fun, it's enjoyable, I'm just tired of hearing 'I wanna make a knife!' :twofinger
 
TylerW said:
Hey, small world! I'm a top notch video producer, but that doesn't have anything to do with this discussion either!


Thanks for reminding me why I stopped posting here.
Click to expand...

You should post about it in every thread where anybody asks a question about basically anything involving skill of any sort.
 
Stormdragon said:
Actually, and having said all that vitriol. If anyone wants to drive out here when I have spare time... I'm happy to teach the basics. You want to learn how to mash some steel, I'll donate the propane/coal, and anvil time. It's fun, it's enjoyable, I'm just tired of hearing 'I wanna make a knife!' :twofinger
Click to expand...

:laughing
If I could I would totally do this in a heartbeat
Not sure why anyone else hasn't jumped at it
 
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