Archie Zietman

sometimes less air is a hotter fire. Too much air I've found cools it down.

what do you mean by a "flame out"? edit: I looked it up. Like a jet engine yes? Faulty combustion. I am very well prepared for that eventuality, though I have tried to reduce its' risk, but this does not mean in any way that I will be casual. I thank you for your concern, I will indeed be very very very very careful! (Buckets of sand at the ready, multiple fire extinguishers, someone on the alert, phone at the ready) Thank you, I will fire it up next week and tell you how it goes, Merry being, Archie

Here be monsters, here be whales, here be....Pikkies! The red circle in the one from above is to show where the burner/fuel injection enters the chamber. Insulation is 1 inch koawool covered with Mizzou castable refractory (To act like satanite, but I can cast the floor in it too) On the blower I'm gonna make an airgate. Archie

There was a chap wot got steel up to welding heats with oil a while back in a little setup. The casters can easily melt huge amounts of cast iron with glowing white hot furnaces, so I have no doubt it'll get to welding heats. Here's the plans I worked off of: Hope you all had a great thanksgiving! :D

Hello. I haven't posted much recently, been busy with that most noble and auspicious process of applying to college (uuuurgh!) But I have been, on the side, slowly building a forge that runs on waste oil. I finished it today, it's like a gas forge, but vertically built, so that the oil burns in the bottom without carbon-blacking up the irons in the top. 1 inch koawool with thin a layer if Mizzou castable on the top. The base is Mizzou, and the removable top is koawool imbedded in Mizzou to hold it together, and the fuel injection is...some pipes. I'll put pictures of it soon. I'm using the waste oil from my deep frier, and other oily things that I cook, and I've talked to my teacher from last year who's frying a turkey, and is gonna give me the oil. Happy Thanksgiving you'uns! eat drink and be merry, for I wish you to be happy! Archie

I just put on huge layers of wool and cotton sweaters, big boots with several pairs of socks, and a hat, and I'm fine. I love the winter! Forging is really intense then! Merry Being, stay warm, Archie

for anthracite, you can burn it with hot air (use residual heat to heat tuyere and therefore the air) which is what the did in 1800s when only anthracite was available to smelt and cast with. You could also burn corn, works just like coal. Good luck, Merry being, Archie

I first "got into it" through having an interest in armour. A friend took smithin' lessons for a school project from a man called Fred Fallar in MA, so I went along, and got hooked. Built a charcoal forge, and then just kinda hit metal around without a plan for about 2 years (didn't finish a single project) Then I went to Penland in NC and learned a bit more and settled down to ACTUALLY MAKING STUFF when I was 16, so a year ago, and have learned more from another blacksmith called Burt.

armourarchive.org has a good forum, they can help you out. Basically cut reasonably thick sheet steel into shapes, and either sink it from the inside with a round hammer, or pack it slowly around forming stakes, like a silversmith, just hotter.

I'm using an old tubledryer's fan. Like Ian said, It's quiet, and puts out as much air as I could need. On trash day look around, there's always someone who wants to get rid of a dryer. good luck! Merry Being, Archie

Dig a hole in the ground, about the size of your hands with the tips together forming a sphere, (clayish ground is the best) stick a steel pipe so one end comes out at the bottom of the hole, and the top end stick out above ground next to the hole ( 10 inches or so away maybe) then attach a small air supply to it, break your charcoal up into thumbnail sized pieces and pour it into and around the hole. I used a forge like that, it's really good actually.

This isn't quite a gasser but I'm in the middle of constructing a waste grease/oil forge. Here's the design, its dimensions are about 10 inch diameter by a 15 inches tall, with inside dimensions of 6 inch diameter, by 8 or ten inches tall. It's exactly like a blown gas forge, but using an oil drip and the oil becomes gas as it enters the forge (the heat) Merry Being, Archie

Be okay with yourself, I agree. But also try to join a club or team or something, anything social. Too much time purely alone is not absolutely the most bestest thing, I've found.

japanese anvils ARE just that: a rectangular block of steel. Look around in scrapyards, there's bound to be a rectangular block of steel (sometimes tools steel) somewhere, and that will be a perfect japanese anvil. good luck! Archie

Seems like I'm in the minority here, but I wear earmuffs most any time I'm in the shop, it's a big bare cement building, and echoes are terribly awefully loud. So I protect my ears when I'm heating and pounding, when I'm grinding and drilling, whenever I make noise. I'm only 17, so want to keep my hearing as long as possible. :D

evfreek, do you mean you use charcoal in one o' the water-cooled sideblast type forges?

Would either charcoal, or corn or some non-coal fuel work in one of the non-firepot back blast forges? Would it have to coke slowly to keep the fire in place? Thanks, Archie

Hello. I have a problem: My vice is a bit broken. The screw which brings the jaw of the vice in has lost the divider bit which keeps the screw and the mobile jaw together. Hard to explain, so here's a picture. How shall I go about fixing it? Forge a little collar? Cut a divider out of sheet metal? The screw has a groove in it seperate from the threading to keep the little metal divider in place. The red thing indicates the divider which is broken. How shall I fix it? Thanks, Archie

If You have a gas forge, a reducing atmosphere is better for heating the glass, at least in the studio where I blow glass that's what we do. Just a thought.

you and your family will be in my prayers tonight. May you find peace. Archie

or holes through his shoes for that matter, I got a few yesterday after a whoomph :(

Here's what I did for a long time: Take a big wooden box (like, 2 or more feet long each side, and maybe 1/2 foot to a foot deep) nail 2 by fours onto the sides to raise it off the floor like a table, fill it with dirt, and to the same dirt'n brick forge as before. Works great. alsoalsoalsoalso!!!!!!!!! For an anvil, take a 7 or 10 lb sledgehammer, stick it striking face up in a big bucket of concrete, and make sure the concrete covers and fills the hole for the handle. Leave it tae dry and there you have a very decent anvil. I used a hammer head I got for free from a scrap pile along the road, and a 1/2 gallon paint bucket and the cheapest cement I could find. I can move metal far easier than I can with my 50 lb fisher. take the railroad plate, and use the holes for a hardy and pritchel holes. good luck! Merry being, Archie

Complete the sentence. You can be serious or silly. I am snaffling the idea from a bladesmithing forum topic! I'll start...um...time (that's a serious one) or... they said massage therapists on the other forum, silly so go at it hammer and tongs! Merry Being, Archie

or Making Charcoal this is methinks the best tutorial out there. s'got pikkies'n everythin'! uses the volatile gases produced to fuel the retort, clever!

I forge in the shade with 2 walls of my forge completely open, and a huge carton of orange juice and pitcher of water nearby.