No... I meant for really real. Your friend the Good Reverend is a real live honest to the Gods wanna-be smith. I've been both mechanic and machinist, but I have yet to put together my very own shop yet.
I figured it would come to that sooner or later.
I think it is something you would not only excel at but something you would enjoy immensely. And for some reason, I have this image in my head of DC, slaving away at the bellows, white hot metal in tongs...yah...great image!!
Perhaps once things settle down for you....
Are you planning to put your house up for sale this year?
I saw a fairly effective forge, (made portable for the apple festival), made out of an old charcoal grill.
Might have been a Weber type. The guy had hooked up some vent, or stove pipe, to a blower of some sort.
He wasn't doing anything too fancy with it. I think the point was to drum up business for hand-wrought hinges and such.
Primitive as it appeared, it worked just fine, and you know it was dirt cheap.