Rob Browne

Like most good ideas its simple and easy. Great thinking :D

Consider getting a copy of The Backyard Blacksmith by Lorelei Sims. Lots of good ideas in there.

Cheers

Nice fab job. You are going to have some serious heat in there with three burners!!

Cheers

Get an old 50gal drum (44gal here ) and cut a hole in the top for your brake drum to sit in. Set up the tuyere, a hole in the side, and job done.

Cheers

The wire wheel will do it but only on the top surfaces otherwise you are just making work for yourself.

Cheers

Great little forge. Well made and thought out.

You are right about your anvil, it would wobble a lot. If the angle iron is all you have at present try making your frame into a sawing horse so it is at least more stable. That arrangement will buy you some time while you find a good chunk of iron for a more solid arrangement.

While forging try not to go to bright white, a good orange/yellow will do for mild steel.

Cheers

Is running the propane through copper piping feasible? Seems like it would fix the hot metal on rubber hose problem then siting your tank would become quite academic so long as it does not get too hot and a well insulated forge should not really put out too much heat underneath.

Cheers

But why is everyone worried about a bit of surface rust???

They are the tyuere of the side graft forge. As they are right in the fire they are either very thick solid steel or water cooled which explains their thickness.

Cheers

Get some hot metal and a hammer and use the anvil. It will be shiney in minutes.

Cheers

Have a dig through the Feedback forum. Lots of threads there about problems with the new setup.

Cheers

Now you have to fit them and spoil the artwork by using them for her. Aren't kids great, they drive us mad most times then do something like that...............

Nice anvil there and what you paid is your business. If you are happy with it then its a good price. Sometimes we are a bit too quick to give advice when not needed.

Hope it gets used well and often.

Cheers

Cover it and leave till the fire is out and its cool. Give it a rinse to get rid of the really fine stuff and ash. Allow to dry then break up and use in your forge.

Don't know if that is the "correct" way but its the way I have used when making charcoal.

Cheers

Whole job is great but I love the penny scrolls.

I make a slurry from fines and cap my fire leaving a cave door in the front when I weld. It's like a very big torch that you can't stand in front of when you add some air.

Jake has told you how to get your fuel really well. If timber is easy to get then charcoal is the way to go for you.

As for the forge try scraping out a narrow hole in the ground and lay your pipe under it with the end in the centre. Cover the pipe with a good layer of mud with the end just exposed so air can get out. Hook up your bellows to the other end and start your charcoal fire then forge away. This would be a simple earth forge and is commonly used in many parts of the world.

Cheers

Its called a butcher, I think, as opposed to a cut off hardy. Anyway I use one all the time made from an old leaf spring.

Cheers

I collect my fines, wet them and make them into small "bricks" which I burn in the fire.

Try hardening it as normal but use oil, its gentler on the metal. Make up a long length of mild to fit in the hole or use the drift you finished the hole with then heat it up to yellow and shove it into the hole. Watch the colours migrate through the hammer and quench when its right. No need for OA at all, a forge can do it all.

Cheers

The joys of holidays, time on your hands and shops that just won't cooperate.

Keep at it......

Serious lump of wood there. Once your anvil is fixed to it there will be no moving it.

Happy hammering :)

If knife making is your target then you really don't need a "real" anvil. A real anvil for you could be a length of 4-5" rod or square bar stood upright in a bucket of concrete so its at the right height for you to work on. Think aof an old fork lift tong from the scrap metal people. The important thing is that the mass of the anvil is under your hammer and that is where the RR anvils lose out. As for hardy tools you can set these up in a stump or frame so they are not on your anvil leaving it free to work on all the time. You will find that most people will make their own hardy tools, that way you get exactly what you want. An old piece of leaf spring makes a great cut off tool.

Any of the "standard" solid fuels will work coal, coke, charcoal or corn. With coal make sure it is a nice deep fire (about 6") so you end up with a ball of coals about the size of a grapefruit and the piecesa are about 1' in size and keep feeding coal in slowly from the sides so you have no raw coal in contact with your steel, it does nasty things to steel when it releases the volatiles. The coke fire is much like a coal one, keep it deep, but it is harder to start and needs a constant supply of air or it will go out. Its good point is that there are no volatiles so it does not make smoke or smell and is easy on the steel. With charcoal, make sure its real charcoal, not the BBQ briquettes they have a lot of additives in them. The charcoal fire does not need so much air and you need to keep your extra fuel away from the fire or it will burn up without an air blast. It still needs to be deep or you will be in the oxidising lkayer all the time. As for corn, it works well and is easy to get but you go through quite a lot.

In all cases when the fire is going control the edges with a sprinkle of water occasionally.

Above all, have fun and keep safe.

Why worry about a bit of surface rust. The first bit of hot iron hammered on it and it will be shiney again.