matt87

Well most force-air WVO burners I've seen simply use a gravity feed, with an on/off ball valve or a needle valve to allow more linear control. I've thought of having a small foot-pump providing a small pressure of air in the oil tank (there's something like this on the site I linked to in the OP). An electric pump might work too. I've also considered the possibility of using a diesel pump from a car; WVO is a little more viscous than diesel but many people run their diesel cars on it exclusively, so there shouldn't be a problem there. The blower I would use needs 24VDC @ 5A for full blast and it's noisy so I'll probably be building a custom PSU anyway, so I could just add another bit on to vary the fuel pump flow rate.

You could of course make it out of mild, then quench into icy brine; IIRC it'll give you a hardness of approx. 52Rc; better than nothing.

Hehe you ought to try mine... 14" of train rail set on end in a bucket of sand! :D

These sorts of stories are why I want to avoid bottled gasses and the like. I'm thinking a good blower and some (filtered) WVO, just like the oil burning forge I linked to.

This may be stating the obvious, but... you tried getting it hot first?

A 4" jaw, 50lbish leg vise apeared on my doorstep an hour ago... set me back

Welcome mate! Which middle part of this green and pleasent land do ye hail from?

Inspired by the various oil-burning forges and furnaces I've ben noticing around the interweb and not having the money/space/inclination to deal with potentially explosive gasses, I've been wondering about the usefulness of an oil-burning torch for blacksmiths. My ideas so far are quite simple; basically a smaller injection-style oil burner as demonstrated here: A homemade waste oil burner Considering it's capable of melting cast iron I'm sure it'd be useful as a general heating torch in the style of oxy-gas torches. Heck, with a powerful blower, I'm wondering if torch cutting would be possible? Any thoughts on the issue anybody?

Well I finished making it today and tested it sucessfully. The raw material was a

More or less yes, though it isn't a melt; the process is a reduction or a smelt as (as you point out) the iron never actually melts. That's what the puddling or finery process does; it produces an oxidizing atmosphere (one with lots of O2 but little or no CO or CO2). Since much of the carbon in pig or cast iron is in its free state , when it is melted in the furnace the carbon reacts with the 02 to produce CO and CO2; this evectively lowers the carbon content of the iron. Practically speaking, this is probably not worth it on a small scale -- as HWooldridge and others say. Sounds like a heck of a lot of fun though...

I just built a little electric blower... amazing! I can work with 2 or 3 irons in the fire and spend most of my forging time actually forging rather than pumping! Also it reduces the temptation to work the iron at too low a temperature, which is also beneficial.

As I recall, this is how wrought was produced for a few decades; pig iron (carbon c. 4%?) was reduced in carbon content by puddling; melt the iron, blast lots of air over it and stir regularly. See Pig iron - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Finering seems more viable for 'small' scale though Finery forge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia You do have a power hammer, right? ;)

Wrought iron was produced in a bloomery historically; tall hollow structure with air draft from the bottom. Light a charcoal fire inside and add charges of iron ore, flux and charcoal at regular intervals. Sustain for a many hours. The product is a bloom, a sponge of iron plus slag and a few other impurities. Heat to welding heat and squeeze together. Heat, hammer together etc. over and over. Each time, more impurities are removed and you get a more homogenous product.

I've seen this done somewhere before but for the life of me I can't find any articles or pages on he net (including in the BPs) on this. Could anyone point me in the right direction at all? I'm mainly looking for harden/temper info. I'm guessing that modern cheap hammer heads are something like 1050 to 1070. Can anyone shed some light on the subject?

Nice score Keith! You probably know already, but it can't hurt to remind (and you never know who else might read this), that is likely lead paint; be careful and take all appropriate precautions.

I used a flamefast oxy/methane forge some years ago at school. Can't say I used the forge function but the torch was very useful, as I'm sure it would be in a smithy. If you build one, I suggest you incorporate a torch too; depending on the fuel, you can heat specific pieces of iron (rivets, bends, twists...), braze, soft solder and cut.

Monkey tool?

Anvilfire has a registry of touchmarks I think.

Looks to me like a demonstration of various historic methods for reducing wrought iron from the ore. Notice the differences in sizes of the furnaces and the methods for providing a blast, as well as the size of the blooms they produce. All are basically the same design though: a vertical hollow shape where charges of charcoal, ore and flux are added periodically. Air blast is provided at the bottom. The liquid stuff is slag (like clinker in a coal/coke forge), not iron. At no point in this process does the iron become liquid (that's why the process is a reduction rather than a smelt). At the end of each reduction, the slag is tapped and the bottom of the forge broken open to remove the bloom. It is them consolidated by repeated heating to welding heat and hammering. This serves to make the iron one solid piece rather than the spongey object it came out of the furnace as, as well as driving out impurities.

I understand that the railroad spikes marked 'HC' are c.1030. There is a blueprint on making nutchrackers. The design teaches many skills, they are a great, practical gift/product and you can make your own modifications to the design, e.g. twisted handles. Toasting forks are good too.

You have a roof on your backyard smithy? I'm jealous.

Erm... wow... Mrs Matt says: 'that is sick!'

I can't see it too well in the video but I'm not sure that's a hammer as you or I would go to the store and see (and think: I should make one...)

Mr Dibnah had a coal mine in his 'garden' too if I rmember correctly... Mr Dibnah, the engineer, the genius, the legend.

Very good work. IMO there is no sustitue for craftsmanship.