Flying Sparks

I'm in Cambridgshire, England. Not met the queen though. Phil.

Sorry guys, I've calmed down now. I was not just refering to trapping bears, just trapping annimals in general. The thought of an annimal getting stuck in a Gin or snare trap sent shiivers down my spine. As I mentioned I'm not anti hunting but snaring somthing by the leg is horrible. Would look good on the wall though! Thanks Phil.

You guys don't realy trap bears do you? Sounds revolting. I'm not anti hunting, but traps....... These things were outlawed over here years ago, are they not ilegal in the USA??? I hope you don't trapped in it yourself. Phil.

Dear Devon Blacksmith Sounds very interesting I hope you find a good person soon. As for myself, well, I still have to work for a living. But next year I may find myself redundant , I then plan to earn some money from blacksmithing and other metalwork. In the meantime I need to spend a lot more time in my little forge learning the wonderful art of blacksmithing. Thanks Phil.

Devon Blacksmith I'm looking for training, I live a long way from you though. What do you have in mind, please tell me more. Phil.

I did it, I did it!!!!! I got a fire going today with the help I got from this forum. I moved the forge back outside, stood some kindling on end, sneaked in a couple of fire lighters, used a small propane burner just to get the wood burning, then banked my coal around the wood leaving the centre of the wood clear of coal, cracked open the air supply , hey presto after about 20 minutes I had a steel rod in the fire heating up. I made myself a couple of fire tools, then just for good measure before I shut the fire down I opened up the air valve and quickly got a piece steel up to welding temperature and spakling nicely. Thanks guys, I could not have done this without your help, I so excited and have got so much to learn about this wonderful art of blacksmithing Bye for now Sparky.

Thanks for your suggestions guys, keep them coming. My forge is about 2 feet square and sides about 4 inches deep. The sides are made from sheet steel and the bottom is made from 1/4 inche plate. In the centre is another 1/4 inch plate with 23 8mm holes drilled through in an area of about 4 inch diameter. Below these holes is a pipe with an ash dump at the bottom and a pipe coming in from the side for the air to enter. I will post some photos when I can, every picture is worth a thousand words.... I could try some charcaol as suggested for the initial fire. I feel that I need a bit more heat to get this stuff to burn properly. I will checkout the blueprints suggested. Thanks once again. Sparky.

Help Please I'm having trouble lighting a fire. Im using somthing branded as Forge Breeze, it is a smokelss fuel some where between coal and coke. I have tried various methods of lighting the fire including balled newspaper, wood, firelighters and barbcue lighter fuel and combinations of all. The best I can get is when after about 20 minutes the flames die down, everything now looks promising, there is an area about the size of a small apple glowing red hot, but even if I turn the air supply on faster it just dies out, I cannot make it spread any more. I'm getting very frustrated and seem to be incapable of getting my forge going. Has anyone got any ideas please. Sparky.

I have tried with a flue pipe poked out of the side door, I'm just a bit worried about all that burning coal. Sparky

Thanks for your suggestions guys. I'm undecided what to do, I have taken precautions in the garage like locking away tins of paint and moving things down the other end of the garage. I thought the forge would be the biggest risk, I never thought of hitting the iron causing problems, then those sparks flying everywhere. I got myself a nice new fire extinguisher and I intend to buy a large fireproof tarpaulin to divide off the garage if I decide to stay in here. I'm open to any ideas or suggestions. Sparky.

Thanks for your warm welcome guys, look forward to a long and happy friendship. Sparky.

Hi Guys I fired my homebuilt forge up this weekend, I had a few challenges lighting the fire but I think I'm getting there. At first I wanted to run the forge in my integral garage but despite taking precautions I'm a little worried about burning the house down. So now I think I will try running the forge outside and nip back into the garage (or shed) to work over the anvil. I'm running a flat bottom forge with a grate in the centre based on a design given to by a blacksmith and using coke beans for fuel. My blower is an electric dust extracter fan (lots of blow) and regulator in the input pipe. My question is if I'm running the forge outside do I need a chimney to create a draw for the fire or can I just build a wind shield around the sides? Thanks Sparky.

Here in sunny England we have smokeless coal that is required by law in some areas, not much use to you in the wilds of Canada though. Goog luck in finding a solution. Sparky

Hi to everyone. I found this amazing site last night after looking through the links section of the BABA website, WOW what a find. I'm working in IT at present but I plan to return engineering soon as an artist blacksmith. I have spent sometime building my own forge and attempted to fire it up for the first time this weekend, I had a few problems but it should be in action again this weekend. I have picked up a lot of useful tips and ideas from this site, just need more time to go through the huge amount of information here. Nice to meet you all, Sparky.