A Basic Forging Guide

For most new-ish players out there the topic of forges is somewhat confusing (it was for me at least). Most of the cool stuff requires so much tools...
But fear not! With this simple (and I hope short) guide you'll learn basics of forgery in no time!
So, in order to start doing anything related you need to look for one thing:
Welder. You **could**, theoretically speaking, go and find forge, either electric or charcoal, but you have much more chances at finding welder. Or, for that matter, acetylene torch, but it's finite and non-rechargeable, so use wisely.

You could also make a makeshift welder (recipe is found on mechanics-related books, heating elements you can get by disassembling ovens in houses (1-4, depends on your skills and luck), everything else needed is easily-found), but it drains through batteries even faster than factory-made one.

Makeshift welder requires:

1 tool with hammering quality of 1 (a rock will do)

3x heating element (disassemble ovens)

2x scrap metal (don't say me you can't find one)

8x copper wire (most of the electronics have some, you can also find it in electronics store)

The next step is to craft your own personal forge. You'll need fabrication-related book as well as moderately high skill. You'll need even more heating elements, plus power converter (look for electronic stuff to disassemble).
By the way, the recipe states you can also use soldering iron to make it, but soldering iron can't hold that much charges unless you use double battery mod. Or two charged soldering irons, I dunno, that *might* work, if it is (or is not), you can say about it at talk page.

Electric forge requires:

1 tool with hammering quality of 3 (hammer, you'll have to find one if you didn't yet)

1 tool with metal sawing quality of 1 (hacksaw)

1 tool with screw driving quality of 1(screwdriver, duh)

1 tool with bolt turning quality of 1 (pliers or wrench, you'll want to have latter)

welder (200 charges) OR makeshift welder (300 charges) OR integrated toolset (300 charges) OR soldering iron (300 charges) OR acetylene torch (20 charges)

8x heating element

1x lump of steel OR 4x chunk of steel OR 12x scrap metal

4x copper wire

1x power converter (terminals will have some, you could also disassemble some of the substation to get it)

Charcoal forge requires (you will need a lot of charcoal, remember):

1 tool with hammering quality of 3 (hammer, you'll have to find one if you didn't yet)

1 tool with metal sawing quality of 1 (hacksaw)

1 tool with screw driving quality of 1(screwdriver, duh)

1 tool with bolt turning quality of 1 (pliers or wrench, you'll want to have latter)

welder (100 charges) OR makeshift welder (150 charges) OR integrated toolset (150 charges) OR soldering iron (150 charges) OR acetylene torch (10 charges) (you actually can craft that with soldering iron, huh. Still, you're better off using welder because of efficiency)

1x pilot light (ovens as well, but you can disassemble empty lighters for one)

3x lump of steel OR 12x chunk of steel OR 36x scrap metal

1x small metal tank (you'll need a welder, welding goggles, and sheet metal)

3x pipe (disassemble lockers for that, one'll have enough)

If you made it, you are almost there. The last step is to smelt all these tools, starting with crucible. You can make one using metal (the recipe is easy enough to not be copied here, but metal frame requires crucible, so you need to take your wrench & hacksaw and cut one from vehicles for your needs), or using clay (brick kiln is hard to make, but that's offset by it being dropped by zombies... for some reason).

After THAT, it's cakewalk. Start with anvil (40 lumps of steel isn't very cakewalky, but it's abundant at least), then go for pair of aluminium tongs (yes, aluminium tongs are made from steel, didn't you know that?), then metalworking chisel, and finally, swage and die set. They *all* require only steel, and lots of time.

Congratulations, you're ready to forge!