Dereck Glaser

Forging aluminum is great, make sure your tools are very well finished, near a polish as it is very sensative to any surface texture your tools may have. tongs, hammers and any tools touching it should be well dressed to ensure good suface finish after forging. The pine acts as a sort of temperature crayon, as soon as it smears a black line you have plenty of heat to forge with. You will feel it sieze up as it cools, do not foge too far past as then you may begin to work harden it. I use a pice split out of lumber, spruce will work fine as well, look for the black smear, pulling it in and out of the forge, gas would be preferable. Best of luck.

Fantasic Owen, splendid shapes and proportoin, heralding the tried and ture forms returns us to our roots.

We have been producing charcoal here for several years. We use it to start our coal forges as well as in our outdoor venues when runnig our charcoal forges. See this link and the retort we built. Be careful, those gasses can build up, beware of cresote build up in a pipe. Al the best. http://www.newenglandschoolofmetalwork.com/projects.php