Supplies and resources

Supplies

Railroad spikes (bulk, 0.93/unit)

O1 Tool Steel Sheet

Rebar ( 16pk, $1.75/unit)

Resources

http://www.stormthecastle.com/blacksmithing/

What is Annealing/Normalizing

http://www.stormthecastle.com/blacksmithing/what-is-annealing-normalizing-and-how-do-you-do-it.htm

The rebar is 2X the price of buying locally at Lowe’s ($2.48 for 4 ft —> $0.62/ft). Personally I don’t typically use rebar for Blacksmithing: it’s kind of mystery steel and too variable in hardness.

The O1 steel is probably good for stock-removal knife-making purposes, but buying precision ground steel just to heat, beat, and repeat (eg blacksmithing) is probably not warranted. Hot-rolled non-annealed is fine for Blacksmithing.

$0.93 per railroad spike is not a bad price. $1/spike is common at flea markets and Amazon is certainly more convenient (assuming you need 75 of them).

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HAHAHA - Would love to see the mailman’s face when he carries that USPS Medium Priority Mail Flat Rate box that weighs about 50 pounds.

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Mine at least simply won’t. They’d make me go to the PO to pick it up

I traded a small box of towing cable for a small box of sucker rod, rasp pieces, and some other bits with a fellow blacksmith.

A medium box would be surprisingly heavy.