T-Gold

LOL, Ed. That's pretty hardcore.

In a glass shop, lots of things catch fire that you don't expect... Often you'll have some not-so-bright character sweep up hot glass and drop it into one of the "dirty glass" trash bins with some newspaper... whoof! Melts a hole in the bucket, too. Or when someone is doing a hot cane pickup, and their assistant brings out the piece of 1/2" steel plate (on a fork) and rests it on the bench rail, which is 1/4" angle iron backed up with WOOD... starts to smoke perty fast, gotta keep spraying it with water. If I think of any others, I'll be sure to post 'em, I'm sure I've set a few things on fire while I was over there.

Rich, think you can tell us a little about your browning process? Beautiful knives, by the way. I really like the ironwood handle/oosik spacer. Looks like you put as much care into the handle as you did into the knife.

I've had very few "dumb spectator moments" because the only places I've done anything remotely like demonstration have been at a hot glass shop and at a campout where everyone knew what was going on. The best one for me was when I had just welded together a set of jacks (glassworking tool), cooled off the weld, and handed them to a female friend of mine who fiddled with them a little, handed them back, and then shrieked "My hands smell like metal! Xxxx you, Tyler!" I, of course, laughed my behind off.

The point of this, of course, is to get y'all to share your Stupid Spectator Tricks, because I so love to read 'em. So if you've got one, post it!

I agree with Bruce...

With regards to the two 45s, you're going to have the potential for problems anywhere you have a wall penetration... that's life, unfortunately. I don't know what you're sheathing with, but I'd say, apply loads of silicone caulk and forget about it unless you have a problem. Of course, I'm no expert. :wink:

Hmm -- what I would do is cut an oval hole in the wall where I was going to put the forge (I would be likely to put it in the middle of the gravel area to make heats on bar centers easy...), put one 45 degree elbow on the hood itself (definitely side draft), put a few feet of duct on the elbow til it makes it outside, and use a second 45 degree elbow to shoot the chimney straight up. If this doesn't make sense, let me know and I'll draw something and post it :)

Okay... I know you guys who use coal forges generally use coal dust for punching lube. What else works? I've heard beeswax, Nevr-Seize, grease (?), graphite dust... I was wondering if sawdust worked, since that seems kinda conceptually similar to coal (carbon + volatiles, right?), but is there anything that I'm leaving out?

You may want to make a provision for adding a booster fan in case it's necessary -- sounds like you could do this by using a tee instead of an elbow on one of these right angles. You may also want to think about using 45 degree angles instead of 90s -- I don't know what your setup is like, exactly, so I don't know if that advice is worth anything or not :)