Also check out
www.anvilfire.com. Go to the Nagivate Anvilfire box in upper right and click down on menu to iforge. A number of potentially suitable projects there.
There are several blacksmithing groups in the Carolinas. Go to
www.abana.org. On the home page you will see a red USA. Click on it and then find the ones in your local area. Many hold monthly meetings, some sponsor beginner classes and some host regional conferences.
Be advised though if you attend one of the meetings and the first thing out of a kid's mouth is "I wanna make a sword", you are going to be dismissed. I use the analogy to become of reasonable accomplished blacksmith is like getting a bachletors degree, making a sellable knife, a master degree, make a sword a PhD. I have been fooling around with blacksmithing for about 34 years now and I wouldn't even consider making a sword and have made very few knives.
Rebar isn't all that great to work with as you never know what is in it. It is a combination of a lot of different things, just so it meets certain specifications.
For steel stock some hardware stores have a small supply of short lengths of common sizes. Best place woud be a new steel outlet which sells retail. My experience is most will do one cut for free, $1.00 thereafter.
For tongs, ain't nothng wrong with a pair of vise grips. (Actually I have a family connection to the name. My great great uncle on my mother's side had the last name of Grip. Well, he had a saying no one can have too many vices, so when his first son as born he named him Vise (to be politically correct I assume). Well Vise went on to create a pair of locking pliers which even today bear his name. I had an distant aunts who married into both the Craftsman and Stanley families and well remember references to Uncle Craftsman and Uncle Stanley.)
For used tooling, they are where you find them. Put an ad in the local paper to the effect: "Wanted: Blacksmithing equipment and tools. XXX-XXXX." Ask around to virtualy everyone you speak with. Perhaps the clerk at the 7/11 remembers an uncle who had some blacksmithing items and has since died. His wife may still have them in an outbuilding. Regional blacksmithing conferences typically enourage tailgate tool selling. Quad-State (mentioned above) has several acres of them. eBay under the Collectibles: Tools, Hardware and Locks: Tools: Blacksmithing. However on eBay make absolutely sure you understand what shipping charges will be before you order. Anvils, in particular, are expensive to ship. Try Craigslist.com both in the for sale and wanted categories. Put in your own wanted ad. Hey, it is free and you never know what might turn up. In my experience flea markets are so so. Many sellers are dang proud of their tools according to their pricing.
Over the years I have worked with a fair number of beginning blacksmiths. Two primary initial faults I have noticed: They tend not to get the metal hot enough and don't hit it hard enough to have much of an impact.
There are three basic hammer blows using fulcums of the shoulder, elbow and wrist, or a combination of them. For really moving metal use the shoulder. For light work use the wrist, For medium work use the elbow. I have walked up behind beginners in the past, grabbed the hammer above their hand and said 'follow me' as I brought it up to full arc and then hit the metal. Heck, it isn't glass. It isn't going to break.
If you go into the shop of an accomplished blacksmith ask to see the first couple of items they made. They have them hidden somewhere.
(and a lot of luck - Wisconsin Ann)
~*~Erin~*~
