Forging Steel: A Video Introduction

Updated on April 18th, 2024

By: SteveM

Forging steel in a garage or home workshop is a great hobby and under-rated. Watch this video tutorial to learn the basics.

Video Feature

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Video Watch Time = 10 1/2 minutes

Forging steel is not a mainstream hobby, and it never will be. That said, there are still thousands of people with a little bit of garage space and hidden talents that could be used to create beautiful and useful metal things with a hammer and anvil. One particular Canadian-made forge makes this quite practical. You can see my forging setup below.

Don’t be fooled by the DEWALT logo. That’s just a rolling steel stand made by DEWALT that I used to support my forge. The forge itself is the open box on top.

Tools for Forging Steel

The model I use comes from Mighty Forge (www.mightyforge.com; 250.710.3494), and there are specific things I like about it. Besides being compact (it’s about the size of a small microwave), it’s also light enough to carry easily, very powerful and surprisingly quiet. You might not think that a forge that operates on propane could ever be loud, but most are. Quite loud, in fact, in a jet-taking-off kind of way. The quietness of the Mighty Forge, by contrast, makes it much more pleasant to operate than the roaring gas forge I used while learning to shoe horses in college back in the 1980s. A 20 lbs or 30 lbs propane tank of the sort used to fuel a barbecue connects to the Mighty Forge, providing the energy to heat the steel inside red hot. Depending on the heat level you’ve dialed in, a tank will last hours. See my forge in action below. This video is part of my online metalworking course MIG WELDING SKILLS FOR THE HOME WORKSHOP.

Have you ever met a young child who didn’t like to create things? I haven’t, and though plenty of grown-ups claim they’re “just not the creative type”, I don’t buy the argument. Some kind of creativity is part of being a healthy human being. Maybe a forge is just what you’ve been looking for.

Does this article and video bring out the inner blacksmith in you? I hope you found the content here useful. Please consider helping me cover the cost of producing and publishing videos like this one. Click the “buy me a coffee” button below for a fast, simple and safe way to make a contribution. Thank you very much.