Hello all. Glad ARFCOM has a forging forum.
I've been piecing together my forge for little over a year. Brake drum style on cinder blocks, hair dryer type. A few weeks ago I met a blacksmith and he gave me a afternoon lesson.  I'm hooked now. Completed my forge, he gave me a 50# anvil and I bought a 5 inch vice.  Went to Walmart and bought a bag of charcoal. Local farm store had rods and strap iron.  Friday I'll fire it up for the first time..
Why learn forging?  I want a tripod for camping, squirrel cooker. S hooks, and a few other things
For the price I would pay, I could build my own and learn   a new post apocalyptic skill..  
I'll post pictures of set up and first finished hooks.
Wish me luck.

Good luck man, you can do it!

Sounds like your going to have some fun!

im getting started in it myself. id suggest you check out your local scrap yard for steel. you can get some really good forging steel for super cheap. mainly leaf springs, mower blades, axles, cable, coil springs, other hardened steel for pennies.  you can also get tons of random steel cheap that's great for making things, like rebar for example. a 1" piece of steel tubing 6 feet long cost me $12 bucks at rural king, at the scrap yard i bought six ten foot pieces of the exact same thing for a total of six bucks. I have been stocking up on steel from my local scrap yard. iv got probably 60 lawnmower blades, 6 bush hog blades, axles, coil springs, rebar, bar stock, leaf springs, two 5 gallon buckets of railroad spikes, and rail clips, sheet steel, angle iron, etc for building welding / forge tables, 2" steel pipe, brake rotors and drums for building a forge, plus, all kinds of hardware ( hinges, castor wheels, steel cable, clevis, chain, hooks, buckets of bolts, a vice, train track , electrical cable for my welder, super cheap extension cords, plus all kinds of tools, hammer / axe / mattock/ pick / sledge heads, sockets, allen wrenches, drill bits, wrenches, and 100 other things. all for .15 cents a lb. a few days ago I got a air compressor for $8 bucks, that only needed a $10 buck piston ring, then I bought another working air compressor for $30 bucks for my father in law.

I started getting blacksmithing stuff in august. I brought this home from the gigantic 127 yardsale.

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heres my haul from one day a few weeks back. I have brought home about 3000 lbs of steel, and 500lbs of lead for bullet casting in the last 2 months, and have probably spent $600 in the process. usually I spend about $10bucks a trip on average, but sometimes I take out a pickup load of stuff. I have a load of fun treasure hunting personally. iv probably got enough mower blades / leaf springs and other forging steel to keep me busy for 10 years.

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a few days later I got this.
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then this.

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heres a bunch of scrap I cleaned up and painted.

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heres my home made anvil. made it from train track. its almost done, I just need to add the horn next. im building the stand for it today..

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go to iforgeiron.com for lots of info on forging, building a forge and most anything iron

In my area the tractor supply stores sell 50# bags of coal rice and nut sized

If you can get your hands on that.  Use the ride coal and small wood/paper to get the fire going then toss on some nut coal.

Most farmers have stuff like that sitting around.  More times than not, they set the stuff aside, and don't haul it away.