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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?
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danieljenkins6mo 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.
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fionalopez6mo ago
Ugh, I saw a whole thread about that last week.
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mila_jones395mo 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.
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