DanielC

All done by hand btw.

So I wanted to work on an old billet I made up awhile ago that was made up of 11 thin layers. Was a PITA doing my first billet with 1/16 thick pieces. Beefed it up yesterday with some (1/8")1095 and (1/4")1075. Its now a billet made up of 15n20, 1045, 1075, and 1095. Its now roughly 52 layers, and plan to fold at least one more time. I think working with the bloom iron lately, and refining that, my confidence going into this pattern-weld was at an all time high. Needless to say, I found the following two draws, cutting once and folding to be a breeze. Cutting and folding similar to japanese method. Seems to be the easiest for me. I am sure in the future when I am doing complex patterns I will be cutting the billets up and wiring them together precisely. For this random pattern billet's intents and purposes, the cutting and folding works great. Cleaned the side with an angle grinder and did a quick etch. Sweet!

I second this! I bought my first anvil from him.

Also, my retort takes roughly 3 hours to heat up the wood to gassify as of right now. I have tried it standing straight up and with a tilt. The wood I am using is rather dry also. I am assuming the surface area of my firebox is a contributing factor, it being 7", sch 40 and a bit longer before it transitions to 4". Takes about a 6' 2x4 cut into segments and oak branches from my yard to get it to gassify. Which still like 5% of the wood I had to use making charcoal in the past using the indirect method.

Emptied it out today. Around 75% recovery, and even though I only let it flame for 5min. it managed to nicely fully char 80-90% of the wood. Still a success in my book!

Alright. It was a success. After about 2.5 hours of fire in the firebox/tube, this bad boy started whooshing. It literally nearly blew my eyebrows off once the gasses started to ignite literally 2-3' above the stack like fireballs. Then a 4' torrent of flaming inferno. It hummed and there was enough energy being produced that it made me feel a little sketchy. I had to put it out. I thought initially that I had it far enough away from my shop, but after the unexpected booms and flames, I realized I underestimated it. It was just all of a sudden. For hours of heating up, I felt like it was going to result the same way my last 2 failed results. Then boom. I'll be dragging this another 10' away and going at it again this week. Now I know the set-up works. Time to make a few tons of charcoal. Also, sorry about no pics. Didnt have it set up. I will take pics and video this week though. Its intense enough to be worthy of video.

Thought i read about dirt being used. Not sure how i got that in my head otherwise. Will try the buildig fire or empty it out and start over with a different insulation.

Also i am sure most of the moisture at this point is from the soil.

Question for Ian. I used soil from my yard as the insulator between the barrels. After many hours of fire lit underneath i am still building steam and npt gassifying the wood. I also noticed my grate does not hold any coals and they all fall out so i think i am also not building enough heat. Will try again tonight or this weekend.

Nice work and welcome to the craft. Pretty anvil as well.

Ah, maybe some RTV will fill in the gaps? Got more done today. Almost done. All I need now is cut the lid, throw in other barrel and add insulation and make the framing that will suspend it in the air. EDIT: Btw, I also added a 1/8" plate on the inside as well. You can see it in the barrel. Didnt have quite enough to reach the entire diameter of the inner barrel, but its better than none, plus it made the mounting of the piping more rigid, and it doesn't flex at all as it is attached to the barrel.

Almost forgot. I did this last week.

Did not want to take over Eric's retort thread. I also built this modeled after Ian's retort. I sourced my pipe from the scrapyard. The closest thing they had to 6" steel pipe was 7" sch 40 steel pipe. I also used 4" sch 40 steel pipe. First things first, did not have a spare tip for the plasma torch Friday evening, and when I got to it, it was shot. Friday night was my night to start. So I used cutting wheels and an angle grinder instead. Had to create a flange for the venturi-esqe pipe to mount to the barrels. Using the angle grinder and a portable, gas powered 14" chopsaw, I managed to make the flange (out of 1/4" plate), cut the pipe down, and create a tee out of my materials. Just want to let it be known that I do not usually fabricate outside of what I do smithying. Nor am I a welder. I simply have access to cutters, 220v welders, saws, etc... Ian also informed me that I had to make the transition from the 7" to the 4" conical. So I did, the best I could at least. I'm also now realizing now that I see pictures of my progress that the height of the 7" is several inches taller than both Ian's or Eric's. I think I'm going to leave it as is for now and see what it does. Perhaps it will allow the fuel and air mixture to more thoroughly mix? We shall see when I finish. Pre-game activities cut me short today. Many hours of welding done today though. Will post more as it goes.

Good idea Ian. Will do. I'll post progress tomorrow.

Well I'm kind of committed with my pipe sizes and finding one this size would be difficult unless I fab a cone, which is inherently difficult. We'll have to see I guess. EDIT: May forge one.

Yea i wish my scrapyard had that pipe. I bought a little extra but my total pipe weight is around 90# after its all said and done. No reducer either so i'll have to weld a plate to the bigger pipe and cut a hole out for the 4.5", to work as a transition.

Ah good idea on the sprinkler pipe. Did you source them from a supplier or scrapyard? Good to hear it worked. Also make sure your clays are kaolin clays.

Just an update. Since those pics were taken, I contracted the flu, then bronchitis and pneumonia. It put me out for 2 weeks. Then my smithy time has been taken up by things I had to do to catch up in the yard and whatnot. Then my freetime was spent mining for more ore with a great friend. I did however get some time to fold my bars a time or two more and then combine to one solid bar. After so many cycles of welding heat and pushing out the impurities, the bar total weight is around 1# from a 3# raw bloom chunk. Looking down at my mountain of scale, I would say a press would have given me a little over a pound in weight bar. No matter, this stuff is FUN to hand forge. Sorry for bad second pic. I just took it in poor conditions. I may fold this bar 2-3 more times and then ponder on what kind of blade to make with this as a jacket material.

If i had the time this week I would! Your retort looks really good. Mine is nearly finished as well. I had problems sourcing the reducer and the pipe in general. Yours looks almost cast-iron like. I found 4.5"OD sch 40 steel pipe and the closest thing to 6" I found and bought was 7.5" OD sch 40 steel pipe. I bought the lengths for both. My cutting torch and plasma cutter were having issues lastnight so I had to use my portable chop saw and a 25,000rpm cut off wheel to do the job. Not to mention no flanges in my search, so had to make one from 1/4" plate as well (Again, no plasma or cutting torch!!!). Got it all set with holes drilled and pieces welded late lastnight. Maybe 3-4 hours left of fabbing, welding and assembly. Today is my daughters first birthday, so tomorrow I will have time to finish. Then its time to stockpile charcoal. I've made charcoal in the past but always the indirect method. While my return was high and the charcoal was top quality, it took too long and the amount of wood I had to use for fuel was more than charcoal I was getting back. Was nearly ready to turn these two drums into Lee Sauders direct method when Mark mentioned yours and Ian's set-up, and I gave it a look. At that point I was sold, and a week later nearly finished the project. You will like that ore. That particular ore WANTS to be Iron. Really hard to get it to steel straight from bloom furnace. A Hearth will fix that however, and make it high quality steel. I've even been entertaining the idea of trying out blister and sheer steel lately. We shall see.

Nice Eric. Need to post some pics of that bad boy running!

Im interested in the set-up as well. Might get to crackin with the plasma and welder this weekend!

Come on guys give him some slack. So judgemental this crowd has become lately. I can see where you would assume that there are books of intruction out there on swords since there is a plethora of books on knife making. Apparently there isnt many out there. Thomas named what is out there for swords. Which is basically books of pictures and dimensions. Being skilled making knives, perhaps you can judge and practice how a sword would come out from there. Many people draw one out to scale and use simple geometric patterns to get the proportions right. Good luck, and i hope you stick around with this website.

Wow. I have one as well and all my searches came up with rr spike maul. Good to know.

That would be the head of a railroad hammer. It was used for railroad spikes.

If all else fails, you can refine the wagon tire by folding could you not? I am under that impression from reading here, when I fold my bloom iron, the amount of folds signifies its refinement. Muck>Merchant>Single>Double>Triple refined... I have bought wrought iron in the past from that big auction site. Usually sells by the pound though. Could probably forge weld several large pieces together. The stuff moves like butter mind you.