John Martin

That is one sweet forge, however, you are somewhat limited by what you can do, but I don't think that matters for what he is doing. Thanks for the link.

Ok Sam, enough teasing us, have you finished this one yet?

ps - King of Unfinished Blades

Seems that everyday, I learn one more thing that can be made that has an edge. I like this one a lot. I might have to try to make one for my grandma.

I like this one a lot, great job. Also, the wood choice for this knife seems to be perfect.

That's all that is necessary to waterproof antler or horn?

Great to hear MetalMuncher, I really like this knife so far!

Glad to hear your back, can't wait to see some knives from you!

Stand and let your arm hang by your side in a loose fist. Measure that distance. That is where the top of your anvil should be. Or a tiny tiny tiny bit lower. 1/2"-1". That's my take on it. Many ways, and all are correct to an extent. Just like Mr. Aspery said.

Chimney effect is going to be there no matter what. The forge is made to heat evenly, so it's going to try to do that. Also, if you turn a burner off, and put a cap on the bottom, as soon as the cap reaches the forges temperature, the burner will draw heat from it. Heat rises. Only way if you are going to have seperate burners is to put a firebrick that fits your forge opening in the forge between the off burner and on burner. That would stop any heat from reaching that burner, still it's not recommended.

I meant does it run at a low psi or would it benefit from an idler valve of some sort to reduce the rate of propane consumption, more bang for the buck?

What blafen said, also check out this link:
Thermal Properties

That is really stunning, I would love something like that on a Seax, but you're right, the whole blade really seems to flow out of or into the carving, can't really tell which. Good job making it all flow!

If you do manage to make a green piece of steel, please show us how you did it, and a picture of the razor Good Luck!

Excellent job, btw, do you have a power hammer??

Great setup element, and that's great Tom. Hope the arm isn't to bad.

First, I can hold the burners while they are running, second who wants a burner to be at 1000F when it's not being used, defiantly not me. The idler valve is made to run the forge at the same pressure, but using less gas. You can tell from the video and from using it, that you are using less gas. When I am doing normal forge work, once the forge is up to heat, I simply just turn the forge off, rather than have it on idle. Forge for 30-60 seconds, and then flip err back on, heat in about 30 seconds, real efficent, but if you're doing larger work, like 5/8" and up, just turn it down to the point of where it's almost about to backfire back up the burner - where you get that turbulance in the burner and it sounds like a motorboat....that's bad - it should sound like whoosh, whoosh......whoosh......whoosh, and the flame will kind of flicker in the forge when the idler is set correctly. You should like it a lot if you ordered it.

Oh, I'll have to steel some of these ideas, and make an upset helper once I have some steel big enough.

I really like how your work all stands out and it has its own style.

Cool, that's good to hear, does it propane up low, or do you get good running time from it? The cold spot by the doors is expected though.

Try quenching in a different medium possibly. Also if you can see how it twisted, try to put some pre twist in it, in the opposite direction slighty, so that when you quench, it will re-align itself. One of the bladesmiths that I talk to frequently, sometimes has to do that with cable knives or a knife that has a lot of twisted damascus in it.

You got an pictures of it yet?

Did you figure it out? I can' tell from your post. If not, search for "edge quench" or "differential hardening"

I like the one without the scales the most.

Kevin, to be honest, if you don't know what's in the steel, easiest way to find out if can hold an edge, etc.. Cuz I piece off, grind an edge on it, HT, and see how it does, use the file test, temper at 350 for an hour.

Quenchcrack, you will be more than pleased with that forge, I have the two burner bladesmith one, and if they are all of equal quality, you will be very happy, and I don't think you'll use that Whisper Baby much. (Good thing my english teacher isn't here, that was a major run-on, lol) I don't know if you considered ordering the idler valve, but it is well worth the 45 dollars, and pays for itself quickly. Instead of getting 8 hours of forging from a 20lb tank, i can get close to 12-14 hours. Of course if you do a lot of forge welding, it's less, but comparable.

That's one nice looking forge for being homemade. How hot does it get, and does it heat very evenly?