Joel OF

Hi folks, just spotted this forge on eBay, can people give me any advice on whether it would be any good? http://www.ebay.co.u...=item27ca2a7b37

Because new forges of a similar spec are redicliously expensive I was initially really keen, but then I found an old thread on this forum saying that the Alcosa F20 fans weren't very strong and would struggle to keep coke hot.

Ultimately I'm wondering if I should make my brake drum forge bigger by replacing the brake drum with an oil barrel, or invest in something like this.

Any advice would be really appreciated, thanks.

Gas axe? What's that?

Ahh, now that relates to one of my questions...should i put charcoal at the edges too? If not, how do i get the hot coke coals to spread without putting them out? Loads more air? I'm finding that if i only have hot coke in the middle it's too small an area to be useful because as soon as i put in/take out the piece of steel the coke collapses almost goes out.

Thanks John. I'm using a hair dryer as a fan so I've got plenty of air when needed. I very quickly learnt that short sleeves aren't ideal - smashing up charcoal into more manageable sizes really makes it spark! A blizzard of sparks!

Hi John, thanks for the reply. I tried that method the other day but I had no joy, I don't know why. Do you add coke as soon as the charcoal has lit or do you wait a while?

Hi all, I'm a complete novice with three questions/statements about getting a coke fire going in my brake drum forge without using shortcuts like BBQ lighters. I'd really appreciate it if you'd tell me if my theory is correct as I want to make sure I haven't been fluking it.

My most successful method so far has been to make a small wigwam shaped fire, then add charcoal when there's a good flame, then add coal once the charcoal has lit, then add coke when the charcoal is burning down and the coal has lit. If the pieces of charcoal/coal are big then I break them down into smaller pieces.

1 - It's hard to get coal/coke at the edge of the brake drum to light if the fire and charcoal has only been placed in the middle, so spreading charcoal to the edges helps make sure there's enough flame at the edge to get the coal/coke to light.

2 - Once the coal is lit and there's not much charcoal left I shouldn't be stingey with how much coke I put on as it takes a while to light, and a decent mound helps cacoon the heat in.

3 - It's difficult to get coke to light from charcoal alone as the amount of air that coke needs would burn out the charcoal before the coke has had time to light.

Even though I'm a complete novice I want to follow traditional methods as much as possible and would like to steer clear of shortcuts like BBQ lighter blocks as there's no satisfaction in using them and I don't want to become reliant on them. Having said that I kinda feel like I'm "cheating" using charcoal, should I feel like that? Is there a reliable way of getting coal to light from a fire in such a small forge without using charcoal?

Any help would be really appreciated. Sorry if I've put this thread in the wrong forum.