The young lady certainly does know her subject. And, as others have said, her presentation skills are excellent. I hope her school instructors, whoever they might be, note that and encourage her to use them towards a successful career in whatever she chooses.
A point of clarification to those new to blacksmithing:
Even when forging with coal, we don’t really heat the work with it.
We coke up the coal as we go. We always move newly formed coke into the area between the incoming air blast and the work. The same needs to apply for wood/charcoal.
As the volatiles gas off of either wood or coal, they take up heat, which means the work doesn’t get hot as fast.
I hope our readers note that. Yes, small work can be heated with wood on its way to becoming charcoal, but it takes a lot of skill, a lot of patience, a lot of wood and continuous fire management.
So then Pete, would you recommend that a beginner start with charcoal?
No, I recommend that a beginner start with “forge coal”.
I’d also recommend that a beginner start by making contact with the closest blacksmithing club to learn the basics. Most clubs around the world welcome newcomers and many, like me, offer to invite truly interested folks into our own shops to get them started correctly.
I have set down my “getting started blacksmithing” recommendations in some detail here:
https://spaco.org/Blacksmithing/GetStartedBsmthg.htm
(I realize that I may have posted this link in the past, but it is certainly ON topic here)
Pete Stanaitis
Thanks for the refresher link Pete. I’ve looked at it in the past but now I need to use the info to get where I want to be.
Try building a propane forge easy and mine works great. Lots of how to You Tube videos. Won’t bother the neighbors, except the constant hammering.
Lets revive this thread shall we?
My old clay forge kicked it, time for something better. I was looking for a adjustible size forge for a while now and l remembered Tones forge, so l draw inspiration from his design.
Took literaly a hour to make, with 40$ worth of materials (minus fan).
Hadnt had much more time to do work but l did manage to forge this holdfast.
Why l hadnt had more time you ask? Because l spent a ridiculous amount of time drilling out the prichel hole on the anvil 
the top half inch is so insanely tough. No steel drill wuld even scrach it. I bought a carbide tip bit but l culdnt get the ones for metal so l modified a concreete bit. It has a good edge but at the tip it had the wrong angle. I ended up heating the anvil to red hot with a torch then drilling it hot with the concrete drill. Dont laugh, if it works it aint stupid 
Just a small point about holding anvil tools if you don’t have a hardy or pritchel hole-
If you do have a post vise, (if you don’t, you should get one) you can mount most hardy tools in it. If you need a pritchel hole, you can often simply open the post vise as needed to provide an opening. Or, you can take drill a pritchel-sized hole in a bar and mount IT into the post vise. An example of that would be to find a piece of inch or 1 1/2" round stock (from old farm equipment). Cut it about 2 inches long and drill 3/8" or 1/2" through it. There’s your pritchel hole. Now grind flats on 2 opposite sides of the tool, about 1" up from the bottom, so it won’t slip down from hammering, when mounted in the post vise.
I have 3 forges- a coal forge for mid winter when l work all day, a self made LPG tunnel forge for doing quick jobs in. Its fast but hungry on gas but really versatile and recently I was sent a pot forge/furnace by Polish you tuber/blacksmith/forge maker. Its a nice, fast and convenient for melting down all the brass taps that I get off my gas bottles. (around 200 each year) 40kg of brass makes good christmas beer money.
Good to have this thread bumped up. A lot of people come and go here mostly disappearing without a trace. I wonder about the knife maker, I think was from S. Africa and was trying to gasify a land rover if memory serves. I think it was some kind of bug out vehicle. Made some beautiful knives.
Is your design holding up to the heat without wrapping? What size steel did you use? thank you
Yes wery well. I think its 7mm or so.
Had some big fires in too. Was making a damascus knife for my fathers 50th birthsday (he is a chef). Turned out ok for first time but next time l will position the layers drfferently.
I would say it is very good for a first time damascus knife, I would also think that your father is very proud of his son
What Johan said 
Damascus is not for beginners
It is right in the name! “Dam ass cuss”
Agree. And to tell the truth l see litle practical value in it. To me, anything must first be usefull, then we can talk looks. Damascus used to be the most practical way of making a tool usefull, but nowdays we got kickass steel and l see litle need to pump tens of hours in to a product that is likely even going to be inferior quality, performancewise.
Well maybe l talk like that because l only hand-forge. Those fancy powerhammer and presses sure do make work easyer.
Johan, your sister is also a smith right? What is she in to?
She has made loads of customer specific staircase handrails and fences on order, hanging chandeliers, rememberance trees for churches where people can light a candle, keys and locks. Lately she has been holding courses in several schools which is very appreciated by the kids
Here’s a link to her website: https://carinassmedja.se/
I guess she makes whatever people want since she likes to design new stuff and let her creativity guide her, I guess that is why she makes what customers want (with help and input from her as well), however she doesn’t do knives.
Not sure if she has ever tried.
Wery nice Johan!
I dislike blades too… l much rather do stuff like her!
But obviously you are good at making blades. Other self-made blacksmith things are pretty sought after here and probably the rest of europe too as there are not so many of them around so perhaps that is something for you if you enjoy making items 
I made a blade- cos people made me!
"Ive made a forge’’
“Oh cool will you be knife making?”
again and again…
So I made a knife- without my forge. I use it quite often cos its so strong
