So I have this beautiful walnut log that I plan on using for the base for my anvil. The problem is, I cannot get it flat enough for my anvil to not wobble. I'd just bolt it down and say screw it, a slight unevenness won't bother me much, but... it will bother me, and my anvil doesn't have an easy way to bolt it down.

Any recommendations for how to get this level? Here's my anvil

Here's the log and anvil.

I recently bought a kitchen axe and I watched a video if the creation process and basically he just cut out the metal and grinder on an edge. Is this bad? Will it be durable for frequent use?

Some chisels from my shop. The big ones has blade 60x300mm. Tool steel and ash wood.

I have always loved smithing but haven't been able to do it in about a year. So I'm looking at opening up a small blacksmithing business. Mostly swords and knives etc, but I also want to work on armor and jewelry eventually. Some farrier work would be good too. I was just wondering if anyone here could give me some equipment recommendations. Anvils, Forges, etc. I know most of the tools I need, I just am terrible with brands and models lol.

Say you were a blacksmith from a given historical period of your choosing (for example, Feudal Japan, Renaissance Italy, medieval Europe, colonial america etc), and someone brought you an ingot high quality modern metal. And then the one who brought you the ingot asked you to make a sword with it.

What metal do you think would work best for the sword you would make?

Basic steel working question....

I have aquired a 3-tonne arbor press, but the handle is bent. It appears to be made out of some grade of 3cm round bar. I can bend it back, but it seems that it bends too easily now that it's been worked cold the way it has. It does appear to be original to the press. How can I re-harden the handle on it?

I'm trying to get into Blacksmithing but I don't know what exactly I'll need/ am required to know.

So I'm just about to go to college, but blacksmithing seems incredibly interesting and fun to me, any tips on getting into it during college, or should I just wait till after college?

I met John Phillips at Primeaux Knives in Knoxville, TN. He gave me a full tour of his amazing shop. I thought yall would appreciate this!

The tour is very detailed and thorough, as he walks me through every step of the process for making knives by hand.

John built his forges, a rolling mill and one of his press machines by hand, using scrap material. This guy lives and breathes the DIY mentality. His work is top tier I think!

I also interviewed him for a bit, a fun casual conversation. Hope you enjoy, thanks for reading. Happy to answer any questions.

I recently bought a used 100-pound anvil, and it came with an 850-ish-pound stand. I intended to mount wheels to the bottom so I could move the 900-ish-pound mass more easily. I deemed there to be enough weight where the wheels would not cause an issue am I wrong in this assumption?

So I am currently looking at starting up with various alloys. I have copper, aluminum, zinc, magnesium, and nickel. I was looking at making bronze and brass alloys, and possibly ZAMAK as well later down the road. I was hoping to mostly do sand casting with these alloys and metals. Mostly just starting with trinkets, but moving up in complexity over time.

My big question for the time being is what I should use for flux? Will I need multiple fluxes depending on the alloy I am making, or can I get away with using just one flux? I know borax and salt are two that come up a fair bit (salt helps with degassing Aluminum as I understand it), but would I be better off with more specialized flux formulations?