saintjohnbarleycorn

I have seen some and I can't seem to find them now. i will keep looking, but the guy is sitting down on the floor, and there is a pit around the forge for his legs. His wife is the striker. funny how you can't find things when you are looking for them.

I think the holes are for a hood, the fence sounds like a good idea. Yes glen I can put about a 5 gallon bucket on the fire. The problem, if it is one, is that when moving coal around a lot falls over the edge. I guess when the hood was on there that prevented it. I just have this habit of wanting to improve things, and I think this could be improved to make it more convenient to work with. the stand is a good idea too, I will try to incorporate these ideas and take some pictures this weekend if I can find the time to work on it. thanks to all for all the suggestions.

ok I will look at plan B, thanks for the help.

I am not sure the brick idea will work now. the bricks don't lay in flat, as the forge curves in to the center. here is a pic of the the forge.

Thanks,wayne, that makes sense. I have some fire bricks around that i can use, close to the fire and then regular farther out. I also have sand available. As I think on this I can come up with what I need to alter what I have, in a way that makes working the forge a whole lot more simple and easier. thanks again for the idea. kevin

I have a forge that is 21" x 27" and very shallow, its made of cast iron looks like. The pics I have seen have a fire box that sits down some inches, this one is almost level, as in not really a fire box at all just the top of the clinker breaker. the problem is that with a softball size fire, there is very little room in the back, and the coal tends to fall out the back. The other problem is there is no room to lay your piece down in the fire, you have to hold it the whole time. Its not that I am looking to do much larger pieces, but it seem kind of restrictive. Am I building the fire too large for the forge, or is this forge made for making smaller fires? My next question is should I try to adapt this forge, build shelves around it or just build a whole new one. I have the room to build one, and I think I can get the materials together, if I knew what I was supposed to build that is. I looked at frog ponds, and I don't know if I can get that much steel together though. Let me know what you think and some ideas for building a forge or adapting the one I have. Thanks for any help on this.

sounds like you had a great night, I am looking forward to seeing the ball joint.

Looks like you have a nice set up there, I would think the welding would be fine, but maybe there is a reason not to that I don't know about, I don't have a lot of experience with that.you should have a lot of fun with it.

Whats that s hook device in the lower middle. is that a jig for something?

thats a heavy duty looking vise!

He thanks for the replies and the ideas, I think for what I have the gravel will work well, and I can also keep the forge area lower. then think about the rest of the floor at another time.

thanks for the info. I will experiment with them.

Ok. that makes sense, I didn't get that the first read. I know what you mean about the shop being moved around. I usually move my stuff about 10,000 times before its final resting place. It is, for me a lack of time, money and organization. But, now I am finding the time and figuring a lot of things out. I am also finding steel that I have had around for 30 years or so. All in all just thankful that I am still healthy enough to still work! thanks for all the help. I am going to go with gravel I think in the forge area. I like the idea for it. And then the rest I will re-pour with real concrete.

I just try not to look at things like they are an insurmountable problem, and when ever I can look at things like it was a good thing that happened. I found this got rid of a lot of stress, oh yeah and quitting my job where I worked with a lot of miserable people.

If there was a number in the middle its been beat into nothingness. thanks for all the help.

I have not figured out what is says on the anvil yet, but the number 16 is clear, I think it means 160 pounds, is that right? thanks. it looks like peene wright, patent, england, but it is pretty beat up. do any of those things looks like some makers marks, there is also a 1 on the other edge across from the 16. thanks for any help on this. looking at the other posts her I think is must be peter wright.

thanks thomas, the spark test on this stuff is nice, I think anyway, its bright shoots off and then starbursts at the end.

1/2" seems like it would just mix in with the dirt pretty soon, what is under your gravel? I was thinking that I would need 2" but maybe I am just not thinking in the right way about this. thanks don

I will check the prices again, I live in the land of no rocks, so all that stuff has to be trucked in from 100 miles away. I guess also that the I was thinking of doing the whole floor, about 10 x 14 or so. Thanks, sounds like the gravel is the way to go in either case around the work area. "I have been to Tom Boone's shop where he has a concrete floor with his forging area being gravel. There is a slight step down to it...pretty cool. Best of" is there an advantage to stepping down? thanks again

My floor is hand made (poorly) concrete looks like too much sand. In any case it has heaved and cracked. I slant down quite a bit right where the anvil/forge is. I was thinking of pouring a new floor over the old one. After finding this site, I see that some people are happy with a gravel floor. I could dig up the area that I work in and put in gravel, I guess box it in someway or another. Gravel is just as expensive as pouring concrete, so the price is about the same. I had gone with concrete before for ease of rolling and not losing parts in the dirt, I had never thought of gravel. What are your thoughts on this? thanks for the help.

I have made some tools from these, but have not hardened them yet. I will be doing that in the next couple of days. I don't have much experience in tempering, so I don't how the results will come out. I am hoping that I have the teeth that are hard, although they seem to be about 3/8" I didn't measure them. I ran some on the grinder and they sparked like the 4th of july, but I have read that that is not really a good indication of spark. they are very springy but again I don't know if that means anything. This rake was on the farm when we moved here in the 60"s I think it was at least from the 40"s and probably before the farm was build in 1910 or so. Not sure if the age makes any difference. thanks for all the replies and when I do get a successful temper I will let you know, I guess I will do a test with a file to see how hard they are.

Thanks that all makes sense.

Thanks that does make sense, I thought it was a coal fire. here is the link. I Forge Iron - Blacksmithing and Metalworking * BP0308 Hot to make a Leaf*

While looking at the blueprints section, I noticed one of the contributors using fire bricks in the forge. Is this common? Is is used to form the fire to a certain shape, and or hold the heat in? Are there disadvantages to this? Thanks

Thanks, I will look for some more friendly oil.