Argetlam

Made my first knife blank today! I'm not finished with the forge, I just set the drum on some bricks and used a piece of tin with some nail holes in it for a temporary grate type thing in the bottom. I don't currently have any coal but I was able to heat some steel round bar reddish orange with a month old bag of charcoal. I just have to do the final shaping and sharpening on the grinder tommorrow. It's not much, like a glorified butter knife, but you gotta start somewhere, eh? I'm planning on making a table like you said Frosty. I know a dude who can get me a fairly large piece of iron pretty cheap. I'll post pics as soon as I can. Pics of the knife probably tommorrow or Monday. Anyhow, thanks for all the help and suggestions guys. I really appreciate it.

Awesome! I'm just making do with a piece of railroad track. I'm only 4 hours away from you man. Some 200 miles. I'm in Pulaski, Giles County.

Awesome! I'm encouraged. I happen to have a brake drum laying in my yard, I have a welder and I live 10 miles from the nearest Home Depot! And I found an oulet for cheap coal! $20 for a 100 lb. sack! I don't have a blow drier handy but how 'bout a heat gun set on cold? Thank you Thomas, Frosty. I see myself out there working tommorrow if the weather permits!

Thanks everyone. Charlotte, thank you, I will read the heat treating sections. Frosty, while I admit you're right, I don't much about heat treating. I did know that tempering comes last. I only had about 10 minutes to be on the comp before I had to leave, so I was trying to be quick. Thomas, I understand that you can't actually "forge" a steel blade with cold metal. I apologize for my lack of clarity, I was using slang for an P.O.C. sword thats not been heat treated. Again my most sincere thanks to everyone.

I just looked on craigslist (Nashville TN.) and found some dude selling metallurgical coal in 100lb sacks for $20 a piece!!!!!

Hey, I have an old cast-iron pot, about 1" thick, probably 2' deep and about 1 1/2' in diameter. I want to use this as a small forge ( I'm working towards making a sword and this simply won't do, but I'll deal with that when the time comes ). I need to cut a blower hole in the bottom though. Any suggestions? Also, for something that big (or small, depending on how you look at it), how big of a blower would I need? Will a hand-crank blower work? How big a pipe do I need to move enough air? Any suggestions on attaching said pipe? Any and all help is appreciated.

Hey, I just signed up not 10 minutes ago. I was wondering, could one buy a P.A.C. (piece of crap) sword on ebay and temper it? I wouldn't be very good metal, and you probably wouldn't be able to take the furniture off to temper the whole thing. But at least it would hold an edge. Right?