Authentic Iron Works

I think the best fuel for sustainability is wood! Trees are a renewable resource. And when you burn the wood, the co2 emmisions can be absorbed by trees.

If you use the anvil the way it is, your work will have more of the "hand forged" look!

What kind of steel glows "purple" when you heat it?

Eco friendly? If you are burning any type of fuel you are contributing to to the greenhouse effect. Whether you use coal which is primarily carbon, or propane, which is a hydrocarbon chain you are contributing to the problem. The only difference between the two is that coal forges release more particulate and sulpher componds that create acid rain. Particulate matter entering into the air is hazardous to folks especially in the form of pm10 which is particulate matter under ten microns. I have been told that it's harder to get pm10 out of your lungs. Particulate in general is regulated by the Environmental protection agency. Sulphuric acid is created through combusting coal and is formed by combining oxygen with sulpher and Hydrogen-H2SO4. Okay, so where is this thread going? 78% of the atmosphere is nitrogen. When you combust coal or propane you are bonding o2 with nitogen in the form of No2 and No3. These compounds are usually refered to as NOX and are major ozone depleaters! So if you use a coal or propane forge you are still eroding the ozone layer. So if you think about the power plants that burn tons of coal or gas in a single day, your contribution is tiny. It's more of a hazard to your self than to others at this level. Also think about the carbiniferous period. Theory has it that the coal was formed in this period. Plants and tree-like organisms were abundant and thrived in an atmosphere that was predominantly co2. As these trees and plants consumed the carbon out of the atmosphere, the planet receded into an Ice age. So my point is that historically, global temperatures are either rising or cooling and not staying the same. I live in montana, and it's too cold to live here without some form of combustion year around. But perhaps if more folks used solar it might make a difference. Your contribution through smithy work is not the problem!

My opinion is that you just can't say gas forges get hotter than coal forges. The reason that you can melt steel in some gas forges is that they are restricting the amount of o2 entering into the combustion chamber. These gas burners that can melt steel without burning the piece are operating in a reducing atmosphere. This means that there is more fuel in the burn than atmospheric oxygen can bond with. This means you can keep adding heat to your piece without burning it. So if it's not going to burn, its going to melt. This also equates to explosive conditions if you let to much fuel to build up in the chamber. The reason coal forges burn up your piece is because too much oxygen is getting in. I think you need one heaping pile of coal on your forge to be able to heat you piece to melting conditions without burning. This is harder to achieve with coal which is chunks of material that are not as easily bondable as compared to gas which is a combination of elements that are ready to combine with o2. This is also probably why pure iron reaches white heat in coal burners easily, because there is no carbon to burn. So I think we can achieve white heat with steel if the darn oxygen dosn't combine with o2. It's all elementary...and oh yeah, it's also combustion science which is impemented in cogeneration and coal power plants that provide electricity to the average homeowner.

This is a very interesting topic and is best learned at the anvil through trial and error. What I figured out after years of forging is that when you are forging a lot of detail at the end of a piece of stock its best to form the fine detail last. For example, I recently forged a horse head poker and forged the neck and ears too early. Before I could finnish the detail on the horse head, the ears and neck started to erode into the fire. So the best thing to do is try to forge the main profile first and then work on other features in descending order of thickness. But, I also believe that if you have a reducing atmosphere in your fire, less oxygen will be forming with the iron and carbon molecules which is the heart of the issue. Good luck. These types of problems are best mitigated through experience.

If you want to weld, keep the oxygen out of the equation. Modern welding such as mig and arc incorporate shielding gas that keeps the o2 out. Thats the idea about 20 mule team borax, it keeps o2 from bonding with the iron. But, It needs to be applied before scale develops on your piece. Try this experiment, take a piece of half inch square stock and fold it over upon itself at a scaling heat but leave a gap. As it cools, keep hitting the piece until you knock off all the slag between the surfaces to be mated. Use a wire brush to help out with this process if you like. After the majority of scale is knocked off and when its cooling to chery red, hammer it together to a tight fit. This tight fit will help you keep the 02 out when you take it to the next step. Next step is to reheat to welding temperature, which is sparking, tap together on your anvil, keep the kids out of the shop to keep the molten iron out of their eyeballs. Personally I hate flux and have better results forge welding when I focus on keeping the 02 out of the equation. Sometimes I will grind clean surfaces and wire together or tac weld pieces together to set up a forge weld. Important thing is a tight mating surface. Round stock is easy to weld together because even though the initial contact sufaces may be covered in inron oxide, the scale sloghs off and the radius's fold together enabling you to weld molten surfaces. Every time I use 20 mule team borax I xxxx my piece up and create more clinker to stop of my forge. But anywho, every smith does things different!

Anyone ever heard of Chasing? Does anyone know how to do it?

My opinion is that the anvil is fine the way it is. Plenty of flat spots. I dont like Anvils with sharp edges because they tend to leave sharp imprints in your work. If I need a sharp edge, I use a block of steel that is lying around. Also, think about the surface area of the face of your hammer. If your hammer face is two inches square then you arent going to need much more flat working area on the face of your anvil. When I first started smithing I thought that a brand new 300lb anvil would be the way to go. Now I am glad I didnt spend the money because now I think my 140lb anvil with chips is just fine. But, if you think this anvil would be fun to refurbish then................

Hello Roger, If you feed me, I would work in your shop free, for one month. 8) I am also a serious alcoholic so you would have to provide booze also! I will pay for my own travel expenses.

I would like to add that I misused the word "element" and would like to substitue "compound". An element cannot be broken down further. A compound is a combination of elements.

Archie, my understanding is that when you talk about burning things all you are talking about is bonding oxygen to other elements(combustion). For example, when you "combust" gasoline(gasoline is nothing but hydrogen and carbon ), you are mixing oxygen with hydrogen to make water(H2O) and mixing carbon with oxygen to make carbon dioxide(CO2). You are also making Carbon monoxide(CO), which is incomplete combustion. Incomplete because it could potentially bond with one more oxygen.The reason you see water dripping out of your tail pipe is because you are making water through the combustion process. The heat and the bang that drives the piston is the energy released through the bonding process. When you take steel to a high heat(scaling heat), the oxygen is readily mixing with the Iron molecules making Iron oxide. You see this flaking off your steel when you are forging. I think the only other element in steel is carbon so I believe we are seeing the oxygen reacting with the carbon in the steel when we see it spark. And this is what is happening when we use a torch. O2 is mixing with iron and carbon creating sparks and slag. That is also why you use shielding gas with your mig welder. Shielding gas is usually co2 or argon, both are inert and will not react with the steel and in effect the gas is preventing o2 from getting into the equation. Oxygen changes steel into different elements. So, your steel is changing shape and pitting because the the steel is disappearing into new elements. I am sure this explanation can be refined, but this is basically whats happening. So when we are heating pure iron, there is now carbon to burn, no sparkler. This is sort of the question I had with the CLinker post. I wanted to find out what other elements were forming with oxygen and whatever to form this product.

Hey buck!, whats a dragon fewmets? Actually I was thinking about selling some clinkers but I didnt think you could get more than 5 cents a piece. Just not worth the gas if you have to haul them to a blacksmith show. Maybe I should just sell my blacksmithing equipment? I only have three grand in equipment now. I was thinking of buying a trip hammer, but maybe I should wait until I sell at least one clinker before I convince myself that this is a good way to make money! If I could just sell one clinker than I could justify a 15,000 trip hammer. Makes good sense to me. Hey squeeze, If I had fairies coming to my forge like you, maybe I wouldnt have to work so Hard to sell them clinkers !

I generate an awful lot of them, but not really sure how and why they are formed. All I know is that they make a clink when they hit the floor. All comments welcome! Thanks

Cool!