Repurposing forklift forks for blacksmithing use

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Dan Dubeau

Ultra Member
I picked these guys up today. Slightly more than scrap price, but a lot less than he was asking.
forks.jpg

I've been passively looking for some cheap forks (or a giant block of steel for cheap/scrap price) for a while to make a striking anvil/post vise combo work stand, and found these this morning. I like that they're the same thickness (1.5") all the way down. That will let me get a few more useful things out of them than normal tapered forks, like machine a couple swage blocks, press dies, and hardy tools. I'm also going to build another striking anvil just to sell which should pay for the cost of them. Anyone have some other useful ideas?

I'll be spark testing them against some known alloys to get a better idea of what I'm working with, but hopefully they're a 4140/4340 or similar.

Should be a fun project to keep me busy for a while once the forge is done, hopefully this weekend if it doesn't rain again......
 
PaulL

PaulL

Technologist at Large
Premium Member
I've done that. The one side of the forks drilled ok, the other was hard hard hard. I got a two decent ASO out of it, and then some forging stock I never did much with given my meagre facilities at the time. The most useful ASO was the elbow - I clamped one end to a stump and had a nice 2x4ish face (the cross section) standing up that had a hard edge and a soft edge. A bit of time with a grinder and it was useful for all the small work I was doing at the time. The second piece was a bit of a striking anvil, but I never put it to use before tooling up radically better
 
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Dan Dubeau

Ultra Member
PaulL said:
I've done that. The one side of the forks drilled ok, the other was hard hard hard. I got a two decent ASO out of it, and then some forging stock I never did much with given my meagre facilities at the time. The most useful ASO was the elbow - I clamped one end to a stump and had a nice 2x4ish face (the cross section) standing up that had a hard edge and a soft edge. A bit of time with a grinder and it was useful for all the small work I was doing at the time. The second piece was a bit of a striking anvil, but I never put it to use before tooling up radically better
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One of the elbows has a bickern or two hiding in it for sure. Besides the striking anvils, I'm going to cut some 12" chunks and mill some half rounds and 90*'s in the edges to make some swage blocks. A little small, but better than nothing at this point of starting out. I've got a nice big 300# anvil so these will become auxiliary tooling.

I have a few other ides for tooling, but that will depend on the type of steel they're made from. I'll find out more on the weekend.
 
D

Dan Dubeau

Ultra Member
Crosche said:
Daniel Moss on YouTube use a lot of forklift tines for his work.
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Ya, I think he's one of the ones that gave me the idea that they were a cheap and easy source of good steel for tooling. There are a few other youtube blacksmiths that have utilized forks in some projects too.

I'm on holidays next week, and one of my goals is to get a striking anvil built to sell from the forks. And maybe get started on my press. I know the Wife has a list of stuff she want's me to do too. She hasn't told me what's ON the list yet, but I know she's got one......lol
 
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