Makoz

The type of wood used to make the charcoal can have some bearing on the amount of sparks. Just last weekend at a blacksmiths meet I heard an experienced charcoal maker say he avoided using certain types of Eucalypt for that reason, but others worked fine. Don't know about pine. Good luck

Hi Robert, That is a truly beautiful knife! The timber came up a treat. Cheers, Makoz

Hi there, Again, thanks for welcome, and the replies. Thanks Dale, I did try a quick search, but missed that one, so thanks for drawing it to my attention. Shame the pics too small for a detailed look. Interesting to hear John, so its an old design...by the sound of that setup the air outlet of the bellows is straight up and into the fire pot! What about ash and such falling down through the tuyere into the bellows? Any pics? Cheers, Makoz

Thanks for the welcome. That wooden tool is a fid (I think its called), basically a tapered file that holds sandpaper. The screws clamp the paper between two wooden pieces. Regards, Makoz

G'day, Thought I'd introduce myself before I start asking too many questions! I look forward to being part of the forum, and learning some more from you guys. I live in the country near Toowoomba in Australia. I dabble a bit in blacksmithing, after doing a 6 weekend course at a local carriage museum, about 15yrs ago. Mostly I work in wood, but also aluminium and a bit of stainless, with blacksmithing mostly for tools. I'm right into recycling stuff, very rarely buy anything new, and my anvil is circa 1942, ex Dept of Defence. My current forge is pretty much "homebrew", I think you guys in the states would call it:D, and haven't managed anything better than compressed air to run it, using charcoal, coal or coke. I started making a rotary blower, but you know how it is sometimes... I had my first go on a bellows-fired forge on the weekend, at a local annual blacksmiths meet, actually got right into it! It was an old double chambered one, over a hundred years old, the usual shape, but the guy who owns it reckons a circular one would be better to make from scratch. So my first question, has anyone seen or used a circular (lantern?) bellows? Even better, made one?! Here's a shot of some tools I made a while back, all useable, but some more so than others. Regards, Makoz