Drawing out is one of the most basic blacksmithing skills. It simply refers to lengthening the material and making it thinner by hammering away at it. Most of the time when you see a blacksmith hammering away at an anvil, they are most certainly drawing out the metal. It’s a fundamental technique in forging.
Overview
Hot metal behaves pretty much the same way modeling clay or plasticine would behave. You can “pinch” at it and elongate it to suit your needs. When the metal is between the hammer and the anvil during the drawing out process, it goes through pretty much the same process. If the pinch point is sharper, there will be movement in the metal. In the blacksmith’s workshop, more movement is realized when you are drawing out on the horn of the anvil than on the anvil surface since the hammer face also has a rounded shape.
Understanding the Basics
The drawing out technique can be horizontal or lateral. You can use the drawing out technique to make the heated metal thinner and longer by working it on the anvil’s horn or you can make it thinner and flatter by work on the flat surface of the anvil depending on your requirements.
Depending on your techniques, you can achieve very drastic movements when drawing out. This all depends on your craftsmanship and the kind of technique you have developed with constant practice. Some blacksmiths are so good at it that they can draw out red hot iron right on the edge of the anvil. This will however require further hammering with light blows on the face of the anvil to make the metal smoother. Working on the edge of the anvil might serve its purpose but it will leave the metal with deep indentations that will have to fixed with light hammer blows once you have achieved the desired drawn out shape.
Beginners Guide
As a beginner or novice blacksmith, you will have to learn the simpler as well as the more nuanced drawing out techniques as you will need these skills to forge desired objects with some degree of versatility.
A beginner can begin mastering blacksmith drawing out skills by taking a simple steel rod and seeing how further and thinly they can draw it out. With repeated blows and practice, you will begin to develop some kind of cadence.
In tandem with drawing out, you will also need to learn about smoothing the metal. You can do this until your metal is finally thin, long and with a graceful taper that ends with a needle-sharp point. Do this with different kinds of metals and you will, over time, begin to refine your drawing out technique.
Conclusion
Try drawing out different kinds of metals including square metal rods to master the basic skills of blacksmith drawing. You can hammer and turn this gradually until you can, for example, round it by hammering out the diagonals while rotating the rod with light hammer blows. By taking ever challenging types of metals and drawing them out to your heart’s desire, you will gradually begin to see your progress in developing your drawing out technique.