How to Make a Forge and Start Hammering Metal

By Roy Berendsohn If you want to work with metal, there’s one thing you have to confront: You need heat. With it, you can make the toughest metal submit to your will. Without it, you’ll never gain full mastery over this stubborn material. Over the years, I have been frustrated by my inability to work hot steel. I’ve bolted metal together, welded it and soldered it. But I couldn’t shape it, and so large swaths of the mechanical realm were off-limits to me. But blacksmithing never felt alien. My father is a metallurgist, descended from generations of 19th-century blacksmiths and born in Germany to shipbuilders whose forges scattered sparks over the shores of the Elbe River and the North Sea. I grew up in rural Connecticut among Yankee mechanics who could forge anything, machine anything, build anything, fix anything—and I’ve been trying to live up to those old-timers’ standards all my life. It wasn’t a hard decision to take another step, and teach myself some blacksmithing skills. [View in Browser]( [Popular Mechanics]( [SHOP]( [EXCLUSIVE]( [SUBSCRIBE]( [How to Make a Forge and Start Hammering Metal]( [How to Make a Forge and Start Hammering Metal]( [How to Make a Forge and Start Hammering Metal]( By Roy Berendsohn If you want to work with metal, there’s one thing you have to confront: You need heat. With it, you can make the toughest metal submit to your will. Without it, you’ll never gain full mastery over this stubborn material. Over the years, I have been frustrated by my inability to work hot steel. I’ve bolted metal together, welded it and soldered it. But I couldn’t shape it, and so large swaths of the mechanical realm were off-limits to me. But blacksmithing never felt alien. My father is a metallurgist, descended from generations of 19th-century blacksmiths and born in Germany to shipbuilders whose forges scattered sparks over the shores of the Elbe River and the North Sea. I grew up in rural Connecticut among Yankee mechanics who could forge anything, machine anything, build anything, fix anything—and I’ve been trying to live up to those old-timers’ standards all my life. It wasn’t a hard decision to take another step, and teach myself some blacksmithing skills. By Roy Berendsohn If you want to work with metal, there’s one thing you have to confront: You need heat. With it, you can make the toughest metal submit to your will. Without it, you’ll never gain full mastery over this stubborn material. Over the years, I have been frustrated by my inability to work hot steel. I’ve bolted metal together, welded it and soldered it. But I couldn’t shape it, and so large swaths of the mechanical realm were off-limits to me. But blacksmithing never felt alien. My father is a metallurgist, descended from generations of 19th-century blacksmiths and born in Germany to shipbuilders whose forges scattered sparks over the shores of the Elbe River and the North Sea. I grew up in rural Connecticut among Yankee mechanics who could forge anything, machine anything, build anything, fix anything—and I’ve been trying to live up to those old-timers’ standards all my life. It wasn’t a hard decision to take another step, and teach myself some blacksmithing skills. [Read More]( [Read More]( [The Double-Slit Experiment Just Got Weirder: It Also Holds True in Time, Not Just Space]( [The Double-Slit Experiment Just Got Weirder: It Also Holds True in Time, Not Just Space]( This “temporal interference” technology could be a game-changer in producing time crystals or photon-based quantum computers. [Read More]( [Alternate text] [Alternate text] [The James Webb Telescope Just Took a Truly Incredible Photo of Uranus]( [The James Webb Telescope Just Took a Truly Incredible Photo of Uranus]( It's real, and it's fantastic. [Read More]( [HIMARS Is Ukraine’s Greatest Weapon]( HIMARS Is Ukraine’s Greatest Weapon]( Plus: The most dangerous submarines and how AI will ruin humanity. Read the new Pop Mech issue NOW. [Read More]( [Alternate text] [Alternate text] [This Guy Thinks 100 Days Underwater Will Turn Him ‘Superhuman,’ But Experts Aren’t So Sure]( [This Guy Thinks 100 Days Underwater Will Turn Him ‘Superhuman,’ But Experts Aren’t So Sure]( Joseph Dituri is five weeks into a 100-day underwater experiment. We checked in to see how it’s going—and if his endeavor is likely to yield any promising results. [Read More]( [This Immortal Jellyfish Can Practically Turn Back Time. Could It Teach Us How to Live Longer?]( [This Immortal Jellyfish Can Practically Turn Back Time. Could It Teach Us How to Live Longer?]( The Turritopsis dohrnii jellyfish doesn’t die a natural death after it ages, but perpetually returns to infancy. Here’s what scientists are hoping to learn from it. [Read More]( [Alternate text] [Win a PS5 ($1,000+ Value)!]( Follow Us [Unsubscribe]( | [Privacy Notice/Notice at Collection]( PopularMechanics.com ©2023 Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Hearst Magazines, 300 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019