Buzzkill

For ceramic blanket you want to know the temperature rating and the density. You want at least 2300 F rating and 8 lb. density. For the kiln shelf I visited a local pottery shop and asked to buy some broken pieces. As long as they are bigger than what you need they can be easily cut to size with an angle grinder using a cutoff wheel (I used a masonry wheel, but I doubt you'd have trouble with a metal cutting wheel). You can also order the kiln shelf online or buy new from a pottery supply store, but it's going to be more expensive that way. Some online places charge extra for shipping kiln shelf because it has to be packed properly to avoid breakage in transit.

Not sure what your budget is, but check out the Supplier List in the forum. Some of those cater specifically to people building forges so you can feel fairly confident that what you purchase is what you need. Supplier list

If you get a 2 inch wide, 12 inch long ribbon burner to function correctly I'm definitely interested in the details. Off the top of my head I'm thinking you'll end up with about 20 inches by 4 inches inside dimensions. If you center the ribbon burner you'd only have 4 inches on each end that was not in line with your burner. That seems feasible to me, but what I don't have any knowledge about is how a ribbon burner will work in that space or if you can even reasonably make one that long and narrow and still have it perform correctly. Hopefully there's someone who knows more about ribbon burners who can help here, but I question whether you can get even mixing and pressure to the holes furthest from your gas/air input into the burner. Like I said though, if you do get this to work I am eager to hear what you did and how you did it. BTW, if my estimated dimensions are correct, the volume is around 280 cubic inches, assuming a cylinder shape. If you were going with the full 24 inches and blocking off the ends with brick or something it would be around 340 cubic inches. But that would also give you 6 inches on each side of your proposed ribbon burner to heat.

When I looked up enameling kilns it seems that most of them are very small - far too small for blades of any decent length. For anything that approaches the size that would be useful for blades it looks like you'd be better off just buying a name brand heat treating oven. What am I missing here?

Please start here if you are interested in knife making and get back to us after you've done a bit more reading on the forum. Your question isn't quite as specific as you think it is. Making knives is far from starting simple. New knife maker?

No prob. Just to clarify though - that portable hole was posted by DSW. It was his design and his pics. I just found it and reposted it.

From DSW: Sorry, about the confusion. Frosty coined this my "portable hole" and I've posted it fairly regularly lately to new guys who have "anvils" with no hardy hole. It's simply a piece of 3/8" wall 4x4 square tube on a 6x6" 1/4" thick base with a piece of 1" thick steel welded to the top with a square hole in it matching the 1" hardy hole in my smaller anvil ( bigger anvil has a 1 1/2" hole). Not shown in these picts are the hole in the base underneath in case you need to drive a tool back out if it gets stuck, and the 4 mounting holes in the base I drilled after taking these picts.

Well, he did clamp it in a vice and bang on both sides the tip with a hammer until it broke off, so he was able to tell from that how it acted under impact. He seemed fairly pleased with the results of his heat treat after that.

No problem. We can understand what you mean mostly. If you intend to use the steel you referenced as it is, you will get the flexibility you are looking for. However, the steel comes already tempered at a lower hardness than is generally considered good for edge retention. It will be better than mild steel for sure, but it's listed at 48 Rockwell hardness. We usually try to be at the high 50's to low 60's to get a good balance of edge retention and toughness (flexing without breaking, but still returning to the original shape). If you do no additional heat treating and you are careful to keep the steel from heating up past its current temper you can make a decent blade, but you will have to sharpen it more often than you would with optimal heat treating. I look forward to seeing what you do here.

1st thought: heavy. 2nd thought: It's not about how hard it is to pull the string. It's about how quickly and forcefully the limbs want to return to the original position. 3rd thought: There's probably a good reason bows aren't made of steel in general. 4th thought: Imagine a catastrophic limb failure with a piece of spring steel. Ouch! I think there are a few people on here who have made their own bows and maybe they can give better insight than me, but those are my thoughts.

There are muscles in the hand. Just not in the fingers. One of the major muscles in the hand is exactly where the OP shows an increase in size.

I don't know if you have Praxair in Canada, but my local outlet says they can get the Harris outfits. They carry Victor in the store though.

Orange, neither looks right to me. If you're building the T burner one of us doesn't understand the directions correctly. T Burner Directions finished.pdf

Pancho, I tried to envision how you would stand when using the anvil. In my mind to use the large or small fuller area you would probably stand with your tongs perpendicular to the anvil and swing in line with the hot cut. If you were standing at the hot cut end of the anvil, which would be the closest to your fuller areas, then you'd be swinging directly over the hot cut section. Unless you can get a cover for that hot cut that you know will not come loose while you are hammering I see that as a recipe for disaster. I suggest mounting that rotary bar you have. You can mount that flat like you show in the pictures. You've got a nice large central hole with a bunch of little holes around it. If you can get a decent thickness plate with a square hole in it, you can easily bolt it in place and then have a mount for any hardy tool you want to use. My 2 cents, but someone with more experience might have a better idea.

I believe Charles already said to make a cover for it if you include it. You don't want to sever digits on that feature. My experience with this type of thing is limited, but my recommendation is to not include it as part of the anvil. It might be a bit inconvenient to set up a different way to do hot cuts, but it's a whole lot more inconvenient to take your fingers to the emergency room and hope they can reattach them.

Due to the nature of king pins they should be wear resistant, and it's probably a safe bet that they are at least medium carbon steel. However, I do not know for sure what is in them or if they will forge well. I can tell you that the S cams will harden and can even crack in a water quench. If you're planning on making a hot cut I guess you don't really need to quench them anyway. I'm not sure if you were looking for leaf springs from a truck or not, but I can tell you they are a lot of work. The 3 leaf springs off a semi trailer are about 3/4 of an inch thick towards the middle and it's a bit of a chore to get them down to workable size. I split a 10 inch piece lengthwise and pounded it out to a kukri style knife, but I haven't gotten the handle on it yet. Another thing to keep an eye out for is the mudflap hangers that are solid square stock and slide into the holders on the back of trucks. They make decent punches, chisels, etc. and can be hardened. He's not talking about the S cams Frosty. He's referring to the 3 round pieces below the S cams.

They look like king pins from a large truck to me - in the steering. Can't be sure without better pic angles though. Either way, those and the S cam shafts you picked up should be at least medium carbon steel. I made a flatter from an S cam shaft like you have there. Worked fine, but was a lot of heating and beating without any help.

Why not just use a wedge and hammer to start with? if you can get a little separation between the coils then you can probably get hold of it with something and use a pipe cheater to get the extra leverage you need.

Use a radius edge on your anvil and lift the stock so it's only touching on the corner then strike with the hammer face half on, half off the anvil. This concentrates the force of your hammer blows in a small area and moves the steel much quicker than if the steel is flat on the face of the anvil. Once you get close to the desired diameter then go back to the flat and true the reins up again. I believe Brian Brazeal has a good tong making video where he starts with 3/4" stock which shows the technique. Of course he makes it look much easier than most of us mere mortals can match.

Just remember you are going to have 2 inches of blanket plus some coating between the shell and the inside of your forge. I believe the common recommendation is to keep the end of the burner tube back about an inch from the inside of the forge. It's still going to get glowing hot at the tip and eventually have to be replaced, but it's protected somewhat by the blanket and hot face material if you set it back a bit. The angle is mostly a personal preference thing. You'll see everything from the flames pointing straight down at the floor to tangential burner orientation for maximum swirl effect. Frankly I don't know if there's a huge difference in efficiency although it seems a lot of people suggest the swirl is better. If you want a small hot spot then the flame aimed at your piece will provide that, but direct flame contact with your steel can produce excess scaling, especially if you have an oxidizing flame running. If you are referring instead to the burner mounting tube then that should be welded to the outside and does not need to extend into the shell at all.

I have to assume you used a full metal jacket bullet for that critter. Nice work as always.

If my puttering turned out pieces like that I'd quit my current job.

If you have little to no forging experience and your objective is to make knives you are jumping into the deep end of the pool without learning to swim in the shallows. It's not impossible, but you will be trying to learn a lot of new things at the same time so your failure rate may be higher than you like for a while. If you are focused on knife making I'd suggest that you forget about a traditional anvil for the time being and just get a good chunk of solid steel to work on. A round bar that is 3 inches or more in diameter (or square) set on end will give you a decent work area and won't break the bank. An old hydraulic ram of decent size, a truck axle, etc. can probably be found for significantly under a dollar per pound and will serve you well until you can figure out what you really want. Fifty to 100 pounds of steel - even mild steel - directly under your hammer will do what you need to begin. If you want to get hammering right away you can get by with as little as a hole in the ground, a hair dryer, a piece of pipe and some coal or charcoal. When we start out most of us want to get the perfect setup and the best tools, but the reality is the tools don't have nearly as much input on the finished product as the skill, patience, knowledge, and care of the person using the tools. If you want to go with propane look up Frosty's T burner and search the site and Google for propane forges. There are lots of good plans to choose from. Just stay away from anything that suggests using any type of concrete, plaster of paris, portland cement, etc. for the refractory lining. Those will not hold up to forging temperatures. Spend some time on here reading and you'll quickly find the general recommendations from experienced people that will get you headed in the right direction. Welcome to your new addiction!

I can't really tell from the picture. Is your ribbon burner tapered or radiused to fit the contour of the forge? I'm curious as to how that would affect the burner function and if any part of the burner head sticking into the forge would decrease the life of the refractory due to thermal shock.