Derek H

Well I finally got my forge finished after Christmas. Here are some pictures of the finished product. I am very happy with its performance right out of the box. Let me know what you think.

Thanks everyone for the input. It was just something that i thought would be cool. I may experiment with is some later on.

I have refinished several guns using both hot and cold gun blue. You can achieve a translucent effect with the cold blueing but its not exactly what I am wanting.

Hello everyone, I was sitting at work a few days ago and had an idea for a knife. I was thinking that it would be really cool to able to make a wooden sheath for a knife and make it ether something like a sapphire blue or a blood red. Making the sheath is the easy part and not all that special in itself. What I would really like to do is to color the blade of the knife the same color. I have thought about simply painting the blade but that would not hold up well to any kind of use. So my question is, is their a way to color a knife blade or coat it with something to color it that will hold up to light use. I want the color to be bright but translucent so that it still looks like a steel blade. Thanks for any ideas.

Also take a look at the idea i posted on the ""venturi" burners". One of the guys suggested some burner experiments and I was wondering if it would helpful to / appreciated by the other people on here?

I am building a slightly modified version of the mongo burner. I am adding a sliding collar to adjust the airflow. I am also using slots instead of simple holes and adding a cone to help hold the flame. I know that if you make a burner to short it will not function properly. But is their a limit on how long it can be or is it better to make a longer tube to give the gas more time to mix? Im sure this has probably been discussed somewhere else on here but I cannot find it.

Thank Wolverine, and congradulations to you too. I will deffinatly take fuel consumption into account. I think I am going to go ahead and finish the 1" burner since a already have the parts and build a 3/4" burner as well. That way i can change them out if I ever need the forge hotter or cooler. After all they only cost about $20 and a little time to build.

Hello everyone. I am new to blacksmithing and I am currently going to an engineering school here in TN. I have just started building my first plumbing parts burner and I am very interested as to the effectiveness of the different styles. As senior projects have certainly not gotten any easier to find I think this would be a great one. I go back to school in January and I will run the possibility of doing this as a project by my professors. I would like to note price, ease of manufacture, BTU output, fuel consumption per BTU, and flame characteristics both inside and outside the forge for each burner. I would also like to compare the results to some of the commercially produced burners. If my proffesors go for it, I will post the results on here. If there is anything else that should be tested let me know.

Thanks for the input. I was looking at it again last night and I think that I can cut the size by as much as half and it still be big enough to do almost everything that i would ever want to do. Especially if I add a small door to the back, as has been suggested on other threads, to pass longer pieces through.

Hello everyone, I am new on here but have been visiting the sight for several week researching gas forges. I have finally decided to dive in and build my own. The forge I plane to build is going to 8” inner diameter and about 16” long. It is going to be made from an old air compressor tank with 2 or 3 inches of durablanket and sealed with a cast able refractory. I am planning to heat the forge with a single 1” “t-rex” style burner that I am currently in the middle of building. My question is, will a single one inch burner be enough to get the forge to welding heat or would two ¾” burners be a better option. I will post pictures as the build progresses, but it will most likely be after Christmas. In order to get my wife to agree to let me buy the refractory I told her it was my Christmas present and she is refusing to let me have it until then. Lol. We have only been married 6 months and life is good!!! PS: I found my 2,300 degree 1" thick durablanket for $1 per squar foot from Porter-Warner Industries. They also have 3,000 degree castable for $23 for a 55 pound bag.