EtownAndrew

I'd say we all do a fair amount of metal fabrication in addition to pure metal forging if there is such a thing.

I like them. I have never quite seen that handle style before. I might give that a try sometime.

http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/23197-bp1048-side-draft-chimney/

Here is another similar build from this site.

Rivets or sheet metal screws would all work.

I picked up a used electric stick welder a little over a year ago and have used it to weld together all sorts of things. Forging tools, a coal forge, etc. But I had gone 20 years without a welder.

It is a bit of a challenge to try and heat treat a longer knife edge. You should be able to get it all on another try, maybe with some equipment tweaks.

My suggestion for a hood would be something similar to the one at the address below with a 10" or 12" galvanized duct stuck on top. You can get these sizes of round duct x 5' long relatively easily at Lowes or Home depot. That may get the smoke up high enough to be out of your face. If you roll the forge under a cover for storage you might want to make it either removable or short enough to fit in the storage space.

I have a similar set-up to yours and roll it out whenever I do work and try to keep on the opposite side of the smoke.

You did better than me. I went to an estate auction to bid on an anvil. However, no deal, it went for full price and I stopped bidding at $170.

My first forge that I started out with was my charcoal grill. I agree with  the recommendation to get Wayne Goddard's $50 knife shop. He scrounged everything and trolled yard sales.

It was my first guide book to forging as I started out making knives but have moved on to forging other items too.

Something I ended up getting from a supplier was a 30" length of 1"x1" cold rolled steel (CRS) for use in making hardy tools. It fits my 1" square hardy hole. I cut off about 2 1/2" each time I make a hardy tool and normally weld it too other parts that I forged. Often when I look into making some new product I determine that I need to make one or two new tools to facilitate the forging or bending of hot metal.

I have found all sorts of use for 1/4" square and 3/8" square bar. For basket twist handles some 1/8" or 3/16" round rod comes in handy.

I forged a small frying pan this weekend. It was the first
thing like this I had ever done. So I went looking on the internet for
advice.  The only thing I found was a youtube video featuring Jymm Hoffman. I basically
followed his method. The only difference was that he pounded the sheet metal
into a dished form. I didn’t have one and so used a 4” O.D. dishing ring hardy
tool that I made. It seemed to work well but may have beat up the metal more
than using a form.

I started out with a 14 ga x 8” round blank. The finished
pan was 7” O.D, 5 ½” OD bottom, x 1 ¼” tall inside.

The first step is to create a bowl. This is shown in the
attached pictures. My bowl was 2” deep. The final step was to flatten the
bottom and create the pan shape. I made a 5 ½” round flat form to pound the pan
bottom down onto. Jymm Hoffman did not use one of these for the demo but
mentioned them. It was also usefull to hammer the pan againt the anvil as a
sandwitch to try and create an overall flat bottom.

I agree it should work just fine. I was thinking over the work I do on an anvil and most everything could be done with that anvil. In fact it is probably better than my home made anvil that I currently use. You would look like a super experienced dude giving a demonstration with it.

I wouldn't bother with the shot blast. It has a nice aged coat of rust on it. The top working surface will shine up a bit as you hammer hot metal. Also don't paint it either. You will just melt off the paint wherever hot metal touches it.

Sounds interesting. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Go with the largest size you can get to draw better. Probably only 6" or 8" is available. The recommendations I have seen for a forge chimney can run to 12" to get the needed draw for what is often a very open forge area.

$12.80 a 50 lb bag from Cumberland coal in Louisville, KY. 502-589-5300

Welcome. Can you post some pictures of the armor you have made. Sounds interesting.

From having already gone somewhat down this road my suggestion is to spend $100 and buy a used electric kiln off Craigs list. I ended up spending more and having a lot of trial and error trying to make something work myself using my propane forge burner. As someone else already mentioned I struggled with heating up the clay too fast and cracking. Also some kilns will include a "candling" warmer temp setting that will hold the clay at less that the temp of boiling water overnight prior to the regular firing and allow the clay to release any remaining water. If you heat up too fast the steam can pop off the glaze in spots and mar the glaze if you don't end up also cracking. I did ultimately create a 16" cube interior brick kiln that worked.

I'm impressed that one of the above posters was able to set a small kiln over his coal forge and fire a pot.

Do keep looking around. I ended up getting mine at the Ohio SOFA conference this past fall.  There were a bunch of vendors selling used ones for $50 for small ones up to maybe $150 for larger ones. I ended up with a nice one for $65. As others have suggested you can watch Craigs list. When I first started looking I immediately saw one for $80 but held off since I thought that was a little high.

Thanks for the explanation.

That looks really good. How does triple hardening work? Do you heat it up to non-magnetic and quench it in oil three times?

I am also going to suggest spring steel. Used automotive flat springs are fairly readily available. When I walk around a scrap yard I normally come across some laying loose on the ground. Not all scrap yards let you look around so you may have to check a couple to find a good one that you'll end up going back to over and over. You can get thicknesses of 1/4" to 1/2".  You will have to grind the sides clean of rust.

It does look nice.

I'm always looking for opportunities to share the fun. During Christmas one of my co-workers came over with his two sons and they all made a railroad spike knife. That was fun for all and an experience that they will remember. 

I like it. The handle with the copper is particularly nice. I'm not quite sure how you put on the two handle end pieces. I recently finished a 16" overall length Bowie knife and at the time we were commenting that it could be a hobbit sword.

I have used a sliver from an old industrial band saw blade for several lock back knives. I have to harden and blue temper it. I pulled the band saw blade out of the dumpster at work.

I am also interested. I sent the Maynards an e-mail to add me to their list.