OK I have a few questions about my forge and general blacksmithing, the first one is that I just finished building my forge and I don't know much about what kind of solid fuel I want to use, or how to get it. I know you can make coke or coal but with what materials. All I have is ceder and oak peices of wood. Did I build my forge right for the fuel I want to use, I seen alot of forges out there made of steel and welded together. I didn't have the resources to do such a thing so I started collecting bricks and basically made a "Box" out of them. I have a 1/2 Inch pipe laying under the dirt with a square hole on one side, about an inch wide ( I know that isn't effective but it was the only piece that I could get a hold of) with one end sealed by the ground it's self. The other end has a peice of cardboard with a small hole cut into it to allow my ten dollar foot bellow hose made for blowing up air beds to fit into and that is covered over by more dirt to seal it in. Now if anyone sees anything, if not everything wrong with this please tell me, I wont mind. The forge it's self is about 2 to 3 feet long and maybe a foot and a half wide, if that. I never measured. Below are some pictures of the forge it's self Not much detail, but tomorrow I am going to clean the ash out of it and take some better pictures of the air flow tube and the whole setup.
Second question, I have an anvil and tools, well a hammer and some tongs... thats enough for now I guess. Also a few peices of scrap steel and a tire rod. What sould start out with considering I want to get into bladesmithing. Also I have tried heating some metal up, a piece of a steel rod or some sort and all I can heat it up to is maybe a light orange, now I can feel the metal becoming somewhat soft when I was hitting on it, but I have no idea on how hot to get the metal up to to make it work right.
I also would like to know if putting a peice of plate steel over tyhe top of my forge would work better to keep heat in or more effiecent...
OK so there ya go if anyone can help me get on the right track with this I would be ever so greatfull and if anyone need some computer issues resolved contact me, I work on computers for a living so I would be glad to help.