I'm doing a great job of melting my work

[MoleDoc]

I've been forging every staurday since spring and i can't seem to finish a pair of tongs without burning the the steel. I was making a pair of bolt tongs this morning for 1" bar stock that id like to make into candle sticks. I had the reins formed and even pulled off making balls at the ends that looked as good a my store bought pair. I made the twist on the jaw and put back in the fire to take some tool marks out of the boss area and the whole mess went up in a shower of sparks and i ended up with an molten blob of crud on the end of the reins where the twist in jaw was supposed to be.

several hours of what I thought was good work down the drain, and I'd be fibbing if I said it was the first project that ended that way.

Does anyone have advice on how to not burn the steel after youv'e worked it down?

Thanks!

[jimbob]

are you using an electric blower? if so turn the air blast down ...I guess your using coal you didn't say

[HWooldridge]

Either too low in the fire, insufficent fuel around the work or too much blast. What you are experiencing is the same basic thing that an acetylene torch does to a piece of steel - heats it to melting and then introduces enough O2 to make it burn.

If it starts burning and you catch it fast enough, you can plunge it in the slack tub and sometimes arrest the burn but you'll have to grind away the oxides before continuing.

[hill.josh]

keep an eye on it.. or don't let it heat for long.
you can use a dull red heat to remove marks and other small screwups. just lightly hammer it, all your doing is moving the face of the metal not really forging even black usually has enough heat for this

[MoleDoc]

I was using coal, Elkhorn brand to be specific. I started the piece on the student forges which are hand cranked blowers and was doing fine but I had to breakdown my fire so the next class can come in to cold forges and make their own fires. I moved to the demonstration forge in the frot of the barn and it has an electric blower and thats when I made my sparkling puddle of goo. I didn't know the electric blowers would burn your piece up so fast.

Thanks to all who responded. I appreciate the help

[coltpax]

yea, just put plug up about half of your blower.

[rmcpb]

Too much air will do it all the time. The blower should have an air valve or be controllable so you can reduce the air. Otherwise, heat one thing at a time and don't take your eyes off it!!

[Ratel10mm]

A good piece of advice I received when I was burning small, thin items was to lay it on top of the fire, not in it. That way, you can keep a good eye on it, and it'll heat up more slowly, thus giving you some breathing space. It works well for me.

[Glenn]

IForgeIron.com > Lessons in Metalworking > Blacksmithing > LB0007 Seeing colors

If you just want to iron out the wrinkles (planish) in a piece of (mild steel) metal low red to medium red will work, if you want to move metal in forging high orange to yellow works. Choose the color of the heat of your metal as you would choose any other tool for the job at hand.



Planish: to give a smooth finish to (metal) by striking lightly with a smoothly faced hammer or die.

[Dutchmancreek]

I have had trouble being distracted by shiny objects and burning my work. You always have to watch it. Some things that might help...

1. Have an air gate or rheostat to control the amount of air from the blower.

2. Run your electric blower power through a foot switch so that when you step away from the forge, the air blast goes off. I use a switch that used to be the foot control from a sewing machine.

Steve