Stephan P

Finn, is that the same stuff that the other Dave was talking about? It looks very similar if not the same.

Dave, sounds like great stuff but to be honest I have know idea what a couple of the ingrediants are. Any ideas where to find "one part molybdenum disulfide powder, (and) a surfactant" and in what form. Are they used in common household things or do we have to get them from a chemical supply company? Thanks.

Ed, I remember that high-efficeincy stack design from Keenjunk, and I tried it. Results, smoke flowed just fine but after a rainstorm I had to get out the sponges and buckets, forge was completely soaked. (apparently we all (myself included) forgot that rain does head straight down on many occasions). Really, unless the rain was light or the wind was blowing more than a gentle brezze, the cap let lots of water in. I went back to tradition and used the peaked hat style of cap, with some basic modifications. 1. added 5" more material to the diameter of the cap so it had a larger area of coverage and, 2. raised the cap another 5-6 inches in height so there now is about 10 inches of clearance for the smoke / wind to blow through between the cap and flue pipe. In the end, I notice no difference in efficeincy and I wish I saved myself the trouble by initially going with the design that has been in use for the past century, the peaked cap. Live and learn though I suppose :roll:

be carfeul about swinging large objects of the head. The arm (that is, the part between the shoulder and elbow) was not made to swing / move heavy objects or exert larger amounts of force when lifted higher than the shoulder. Actually, to be technically correct, it is not the arm at risk, but rather cuff in the shoulder. Just don't over-do it with overhead motions is all I'm getting at.

lit a cat on fire once, apparently those real soft fluffy ones should wear DOT tags marked "Explosive"

when my hammer grip gets too slick I just dunk my hand in the water bucket (clean water bucket, not the slimey slack tub). Do that a couple of times and it will minutely raise the fibres of the wood grain, making a comfortable yet controlable grip. (ps, this won't work if you still have that clear layer of lacquer on the hammer handle, want to sand that off first anyways).

Maybe I'm just lucky but 10" works great for me and I have a pretty big firepot. It is straight-up with no bends and smooth a glass, so maybe that helps it. For me, 10" was a critical size because a 12" roof jack costs about $130cdn and up while a 10" was only about $55cdn. That's half a tonne of coal difference! :shock:

Ditto what Jim said, through the roof. I would not recommend the window. Having no bends in my system I am very glad for that. I can stir that fire up and not have to worry about waiting for the stack gas velocity to get up to speed before laying on the air blast. I think that the window would work ok if it was down low near normal forge working level, so long as you ran enough stack to get well clear of that roofline (or stuck a fan in there). As you already aluded to, put the stack up near the peak, so the roof jack is just a few inches below the peak. Caulk the heck out of it and you wont have any leaks (when laying the roof jack, put a couple of beads of caulk on the underside so that it creates a seal between the metal jack and the roof plywood / OSB. That's how I did mine and I am using a shake roof, so it got a bit complicated cutting some of the peices to fill in all the voids, but still not a leak. (Not to mention that you have one up on me already because your roof isn't on yet, I had to peel off a bunch of shakes to lay that jack down good and solid.) Ed, you have got more guts... er faith than me, I don't think I'd be able to sleep wondering if ther was a spark that was going to light the horse barn on fire in the middle of the night. Even as it is, every night after shutting down the forge I turn off all of the lights and go wandering around the forge area looking for glowing embers that have fallen against the walls etc.

just becareful of the radiant heat from the stack. The first few feet of my 10" stack can get so hot that it'll burn your hand like a grid iron. if that was going through flammables, I'd have at least 2" of surrounding moving ambient air to keep things cool. The hood gets just as hot. Wouldn't want to burn such a pretty place down. BTW, what type and size of forge are you putting in.

when forging at an outdoor exibition, be careful not to light fire to the dry grass ground that your spectators are standing on :oops:

usually provides for a good chuckle if nothing else. Often though they'll realize that you just might know what you are talking about and shoot, they start to listen, then they go off happy to have met someone new :)

Another thing to keep in mind is your audience. For me, a general public audiance will mean an automatic switch to coal (and I bring lump coal along for the young to pick up and see). Having tried using charcoal in a general re-inactment or demo of other sorts, I was amazed at the amount of spectators who could not grasp the thought that "the blacksmith wasn't using real coal?????" and "maybe he's just pretending" and of course spectator "are you Bar-B-Qing?", me "no" spec "well then why are you using charcoal" me "because 300 years ago it was the primary forging fuel" spec "well my grandaddy used to be a coal miner and them blacksmiths used coal then" me "yes, coal became quite popular around the beginning of the 19th century" spec "well, I still don't see why you aren't using coal, after all, they had it back then" me "wow, you're grandaddy sure lived a long time eh?" spectator usually does some quick math at this time and realizes that his grandfather would have had to be about 150years old to have seen the beginning of the 19'th century After a while that same say it became spectator "what's that stuff you are roasting?" me "it's a slightly different type of coal and was very popular in the earlier years" spec "oh, sure looks neat, is it hot... yada yada, the usuall" but, like magic, spectator is happy because the smith is doing what fits their common knowledge of what a smith should be. besides, who doesn't like the enticing waft of coal smoke in the morning air? :wink: (BTW, yes, Jay Reikert is deceased)