Hi Guys and Gals,Side draft or updraft which one should I use.
I have a question to ask regarding the merits/ disadvantages of side draft and updraft air supplies to my coal nut forge.
I am a hobbyist knife maker and have for a while been using the side draft into the fire pit and have behind the pit placed an arch of fire bricks to refect the heat.Hope you can imagine this.
Ive been reasonably happy with this arrangement untill the last time I was forging at a friends house.
My friend has more forging experience than me and does some really neat damascus work ( although in the main he uses a gas forge for this).
On the day at my friends house we did some forging of damascus billet using an updraft in to a coke nut fire.
I must say I learnt one xxxx of a lot that day about fire pit management. Mainly because to get enough heat into the billet you are working with the billet well burried and cannot see it, and have to have good management of the fire pit.
The only problem that we had was that because we where heating up the billet repeatedly for the bash and folding , the grate in the bottom under the fire pit kept getting blocked up with slag.
Im in the process of fitting an updraft grate to my forge but im wondering am i going to spend most of my time unblocking the grate when forging high carbon steels and also having a go at Damascus. Should I just stick to my side draft air blower arrangement. ? What are your experiences with each can I still get as good fire rit control with the side draft, or does the updraft give me more localised heat which I would seem to need for Damascus work.
p.s. I have not got a gas forge so im willing to persivere with the coal forge for Damascus.
Any advice greatfully recieved.
Many thanks Hammerandtongs
