I was convinced my coal forge was just fine, but a guy at the Tacoma hammer-in set me straight

I was working on a leaf project and an older smith named Carl watched me for a minute. He said, 'Your fire's too deep, you're just cooking the metal in there.' He showed me how to build a shallower, wider fire with a good coke heart. I switched to his method and my next piece came out with way cleaner, more even heats. Has anyone else had a basic technique tip that really clicked for them?

3 comments

3 Comments

danieljenkins1mo ago

Ever feel like you've been doing something wrong for years and nobody told you? Classic smith move, keeping the good tips to themselves until you look really confused.

fionalopez1mo ago

Ugh, I saw a whole thread about that last week.

mila_jones3922d ago

Three years. That's how long I was cutting down cross-grain on a board before someone finally whispered "grain direction matters" from behind a shelf. I felt like I'd been doing some elaborate interpretive dance while everyone else was just saying hello. My first few projects probably looked like they'd been attacked by a beaver with a grudge. And naturally, I had to hide all the evidence in my garage so nobody could point and laugh.