r/Blacksmith

68K archived posts · Aug 2009 – Sep 2026

Welcome to the Shop!

r/Blacksmith

A subreddit dedicated to the ancient art of blacksmithing. Show off your latest creations or get advice on a problem. This subreddit is temporarily private as part of a joint protest to Reddit's recent API changes, which breaks third-party apps and moderation tools, effectively forcing users to use the official Reddit app. In the mean time, please join the community on Discord at https://discord.gg/GzCPQKWrZh

Created Jul 15, 2009

285KMembers (last snapshot)

68KArchived posts

April Contest: Apocalyptic Tools

A subreddit devoted to all things blacksmith. Feel free to show off your latest creations or get advice on a problem, or anything else related to blacksmithing!

##Previous winners of our monthly contest!

January: /u/ArtistCeleste

February: /u/Karn3

March: /u/docroberts

April: /u/forge_lizard

May/June: /u/The_Brass_Dog

Please remember that any information/tips/tricks you get from this subreddit are not the end-all-be-all of blacksmithing. This is a multi-thousand year old trade and much of the information garnered from those times were lost during the industrial revolution. Do your own research to double check if you agree with the opinions stated here before following them.

This Sub now has a Discord Channel. Join it here.

Beginner? Read our [FAQ] (http://www.reddit.com/r/Blacksmith/wiki/faq) and FAQ Discussion, And be sure to check out below.

WARNING!!! Read this before attempting any kind of forging.

Rules and guidelines for posting:

Please be considerate to others when posting/commenting. Blatant troll posts/comments will be removed.
Posts of YouTube videos, gifs, or images must include the beginnings of a discussion or a write up in the comments with a minimum of three sentences. Posts without a submission comment from the OP will be removed within 24 hours.
Obviously this sub is for blacksmithing related topics, so keep posts related to blacksmithing.
Blatant advertising and for sale posts are not allowed.
When reporting content, you MUST state WHY you reported it.
Any NSFW posts will be reviewed by the mods and may be removed based on our judgement of the value of the content.

Further resources:

ABANA Forging Fundamentals - a suggested program of study to learn hand forging

Iforgeiron

Have an englishweight anvil? Try this nifty little tool from anvilfire to find out how much it weighs in lbs.

Dictionary from anvilfire for those hard to google terms.

ABANAs list of schools in North America
Appalachian Blacksmiths Association list of schools in the US

Books:

Basic Blacksmithing
Metallurgy for bladesmiths and others who heat treat and forge steel
The Blacksmith's Craft
Engineering Handbook (Lots of info about Metallurgy)

Projects

[Collection of tutorials] (http://blacksmithingtutorials.com/)
Brake drum forge
Project ideas here
Some very good tutorials here

Our friends:

###Skilled Trade Network: Metalwork

Other communities

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