Grafvitnir

Mark Aspery posted this a few years ago and shows his arrangement for the flue on his sideblast forge and is placed in front of the water tank over the tue. I'm not sure if this may help you somehow... Rubén Blackmiths flue article.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jwUl3Z2-cc

In his book on japanese bladesmithing he says he prefers a charcoal forge although he also uses coal, coke or gas. This from Google books shows his arrangement: https://books.google.com.mx/books?id=aTTOlliEPo8C&pg=PA43&lpg=PA43&dq=murray+carter+charcoal+forge&source=bl&ots=EoriEFaPO7&sig=R9IKzV_RyDPbzpXRWLimEbj1KoI&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=murray carter charcoal forge&f=false I hope the link works correctly and that it may be of help Rubén

Hi Brian! I just watched that last night. Here it is

If you don't mind Brian :) I'm including two of your videos where you elaborate on this. On minute 18:00 of the tong forging video Brian cuts to center with an explanation. And the other one is an explanation of the same in clay Hope it helps. Rubén

Video of Brian Brazeal forging tongs Hope it helps... Rubén

There is a TV show here in México called "Aquí nos tocó vivir" that loosely translated it may be "Here is where luck or whatever choose us to live" meaning something like 'being here I have to make a living in any way I can'. About 6 years ago there was an episode called "La fragua y el yunque" (Forge and anvil) about one of the last smiths in México city. The anchor usually asks questions more about the life and history of the person interviewed that that of which he does for a living. This year is the 35 anniversary of the show and they uploaded 35 programs, one of which was this one. Unfortunately there's no translation but as I said, they don't talk much about the processes. This man was orphaned very young so they had to move from the state of Hidalgo to México city where his mother met a blacksmith and put him when he was 10 as an apprentice and that blacksmith was a very famous one for the stone cutting tools he made. The important part I think is to see him and his sons work in their improvised anvils, making tools. I don't know how long they are going to be online so I wanted to share this before it is gone. There´s also one on copper working and in the first seconds you can see one of the bellows they use very similar to the ones on "Southwestern Colonial Ironwork: The Spanish Blacksmithing Tradition from Texas to California" I hope you enjoy it. Rubén

I think this is the one: http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/10211-slitter-geometry/ Hope it helps :) Rubén

@Ridgewayforge You may also watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH980wjMyaM Rubén

Hahaha... I tried that first but besides striking like lightning... let's say they didn't strike with enough confidence. So I had to direct with the sledge...

Sorry, just got home from work. I first tried forging the head of the rail with my hand hammer and realized it would be hard but possible. Some friends were here Sunday morning so I asked one of them to hold it in my tongs while I struck with a 10lb sledge. It took 4-5 heats and an additional heat with my hand hammer for breaking in the corners. The picture shows the tongs I used (found them in something like a flea market) for forging that part. If I had a better anvil ;) with a square hardy hole I'll then proceed to upset the rest of the stem into a shoulder to try to avoid the wedging when using it. Then I forged the bick end to square, octagon, roundish and finish with hot rasping. That was made with my hand hammer, maybe 4 heats plus an additional one for rasping. I didn´t even touched the other side because I felt that side may get more use and wanted to think first what to do to it (just sand it or radius some corners and leave others sharp to use as the "new corners" tool Brian uses or whatever). On the other picture you can see the awful surface result from the rough flamecut. That's why this was like an experiment to see what was feasable, but maybe now is a keeper :) Thank you for your comments, again. Rubén

It is purely forged with a little hot rasping to finish it. (although I should had rasped it better than I did ;) )

My only anvil is a striking anvil like Brian Brazeal's and for a while I've been needing something like a horn for shaping various projects. I was walking through the place where I buy scrap when I saw a piece of rail that had been roughly flamecut freehand so I got it for free and used it to see the feasabilty of making a bickern out of a better piece of rail. I forged the rail part as a squarish taper to insert in the "hardy" semi-hole (it is still almost round) and then taper to round one of the sides of the "foot" of the rail (I don't know how to call that part). I don't know if it is better to leave it as forged or do some HT to it. Almost all my tools for hot work are left without HT. I just finished it so have not tried it yet. Maybe next weekend... :rolleyes: Thanks for watching and for your comments if any. Rubén

There's this video on youtube of a similiar idea but just the wheel with a treadle: Hope it helps Rubén

"may be inclined to verbally beat me like a dead mule harnessed to their overloaded wagon" He, he, he... I love the "Crime and Punishment" reference.

Thank you for sharing that information. I've never seen a side blast in real life so this was something I wanted to know because I'm tweaking my 55 side blast and this helps me diminish the trial and error process I've been using :) Thank you again Rubén

Mark Aspery posted a pdf file with the one he uses on his sideblast here: Post #4 I think, Hope it helps... Rubén

If you want to try one of these: You can find instructions in Hasluck's Smith Work downloadable from here: http://www.wkfinetools.com/mLibrary/Hasluck/1904-smith'sWork/1904-smith'sWork1.asp There was a video on youtube, someone made this other bellows but it seems the user closed his account and I think I can't upload a ~8Mb video here for you to see in use, but the plans are here: http://cd3wd.com/cd3wd_40/JF/JF_OTHER/SMALL/04-084_blacksmiths_bellows.pdf It seems it works very good; at least with charcoal (it needs less air) Hope it helps... Rubén

You can watch him making the taper; and the rest of the tool here: Rubén

Now I'm quite sure it's some kind of coke. I did the same as yesterday, i.e., newspaper and small wood pieces but used dry "fuel" it took a while but it ignited; no smoke at all (that's what made me think it must be coke)(Also no smell but I used for just under 1 hour... I didn't got the headache yet. Just trying to be cautious Glenn). I run the blower for almost 45 minutes just studying the behavior of this fuel. It got VERY hot but never got to the top of it. I had to introduce a piece of 1/2" round to see what happened, it got to yellow in about 2 minutes, from cold. Then from dull red to yellow again in 30-45 seconds or so; but the fireball was located about 2 inches down. Then I stopped the blower; 5 minutes later it was still glowing red, restarted the blower and it started again. Then I stopped the blower again and waited 10-15 minutes. This time the fire went completely out I know, its the first fire, with new forge, with unknown fuel. I'll have to tweak it but I might get there quicker if you look at what I'm doing so I enclosed more pictures. How the fire looks; the size of the "firepot" (it's 4 1/2" x 10" x 5" deep or so); the "sacrificial tuyere" and the tuyere's diameter air hole (3/4"). The good thing is I can forge different sizes from the same tube and just reforge and move it forward each time it burns up until it disappears . I also included pictures of the complete setup although I still don't know how it will end looking after tweaking everything. You can also see how the fuel looks after burning for 45 minutes and is cold. No clinkers yet Thank you again. Rubén

Ok, so it may be some kind of coke then. Then I made matters worse by moistening it first thinking it was coal, hehehe. I'll try again tomorrow with a dry batch. I'm using an electric blower, and the last 3 times I tried, I had a wood fire going strong, then covered it with the stuff and it continued to burn for at least 10 to 15 minutes through the coke/whatever until the wood was consumed to the end, i.e., turn to ashes and it was out with no effect to the coke. Thank you for your answers Rubén. PS. I'll ask the guy who gave it to me, what he gave me because I had said specifically I wanted to try coke, either pet coke or metallurgical as my last try; not the first ;)

I have a problem. When I went to MS for the week learning with Brian Brazeal it was the first time ever I got to use coal (bituminous). I started the fire with either newspaper balls or pine cones. (I almost always light it with newspaper just to do it a little harder and get the practice) but never was hard. It almost lighted as easily as the mesquite lump charcoal I've been using all this time. So I came back and have been trying to find coal. A friend of mine works in a company that gets the coal for the iron and other industries in northern México so I asked him if he could get me samples to find out what was the best (the name for it here in México) I said I wanted bituminous coal with so and so levels of ash, sulfur, BTU's etc. He comes back after a time with a 50lb bag of "something". Big chunks and it feels different that the one I used in MS. Meanwhile I built a 55 side blast forge, following the BP (thanks Glenn) and a book that Frank Turley mentioned in the "Metal Artist Forum" while discussing side blasts with John B. Great book by the way, maybe I'll write a review in the "Book Reviews" section later. It's "The Blacksmith and his Art" by J E Hawley. I had to break the chunks of "the fuel" to small pieces, being my first fire of the forge I had to use firebricks to make a firepot while I have enough ashes. First try I only used newspaper. Nothing. Strange because that was easy with good coal. Next few tries I built a fire with newspaper and firewood... enough firewood to keep running a flame, sometimes bigger that in MS for 15 minutes through "the fuel". Nothing, not even a little amber nor coal smoke. When the wood was out because it became ashes, "the fuel" is as black as if it was never in contact with the flame, it was not affected. It was as if I was using stones for fuel. I'm thinking I have either anthracite or coke; but being so heavy, I'm thinking the first. I'm including pictures of "the fuel" my 55 forge, and the info from the book I used. I hope it can be identified with the pictures. Thank you for your patience with this long post and for the help I might get. Rubén

Sorry for not writing earlier but I’ve been thinking A LOT about the experience. I’ve also been thinking on how and what to write about it. I’m trying to write as little as possible about it because words cannot describe my state of mind. (Also because the less I write the less misunderstandings there will be; I hope…). The whole experience was like a tiny Satori or Kensho of the Japanese Zen Buddhism tradition. One thing I can say is: I’m glad I did it. I’ll go first on trying to describe the learning process. My learning has almost always been a very smooth transition, from the basics to something a little more advanced, then the next advanced level. There have been a few moments, like when I understood the meaning of adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing; then basic algebra, or when I discovered I no longer read the letters of words but recognized the words themselves, when you feel like things are never going to be the same. You know, when you realize you no longer have to memorize that 4x3=12; if you forget it you know how to get the answer because you know WHY it is 12. But at the same time you KNOW this is just the beginning of a long journey. That’s how I feel right now. I’ve been going through all of Brian’s posts again, and it is as if I’ve never read them before. I guess everyone is familiar with the saying “Give a man a fish; feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish; feed him for a lifetime" (Lao Tzu). That’s what I wanted; not to make a hammer or a tool, but understand the process involved, for the process per se. As in Henry David Thoreau’s attributed quote: “Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing it is not fish they are after”. It's about the journey not the destination. All this I got from Brian. I’m not sure if he does this always or if he knows what the apprentice needs and then he gives that. The thing is he is a great teacher. And then the company… I really enjoyed working with him and Lyle. Lyle is very helpful, he’s been working with Brian for a while now so he has picked a lot from him along with all the experience he had before. So you get to watch different ways to accomplish the task. And he has a very good sense of humor as well, so he makes your work time even better. And of course, Karen. She is wonderful, as a person and as a cook You could have great conversations with her if there was any time left in between or after work. Thank you so much for everything Karen I’ll also like to thank all the people I met at the AG Museum, thank them for their hospitality and help. It seems Perry is already there; I know he’ll be having a good time. And Alec, I know you’ll also have a great time and learn a lot. Ok, I think this has been my longest post, much longer than I intended, so I should stop now. Thank you for your patience. Rubén

Hi! I put the info John B sent me into a Word document and I'm trying to attach it here. I hope it works Hope it helps Rubén PS: It worked PPS: I have an idea to mix this info with the one in the Inversin bellows for the third world and the one in either Hasluck's "Smith's Work" or Smith's "Manual of Blacksmithing" and the one in "Oil Drum Forges"; all into one that should be over-engineered but that needs less skills to build Inversin: http://cd3wd.com/cd3wd_40/JF/JF_OTHER/SMALL/04-084_blacksmiths_bellows.pdf Oil Drum Forge: http://cd3wd.com/cd3wd_40/JF/JF_VE/SMALL/04-110.pdf Hasluck's Smit's Work: http://www.wkfinetools.com/mLibrary/Hasluck/1904-smith%27sWork/1904-SmithsWork-Hasluck.pdf Now that I've seen it work,I'm more motivated to try it :) Bellows details shown 1.doc final John Bellamy bellows description.doc

After John B sent me a very detailed description of the interior of one of these I procrastinated constructing one because I was not sure how well it worked and I knew it would be very hard to make one. Now that I found this video of one in use I have no doubt that it really works. I hope you enjoy it. Rubén