Charles R. Stevens

I dream of a double horn Spanish stake anvil

Now if you don’t have a reducer (funnel) to catch the air from the hair drier it’s hard to get enough air down the small tuyere. another problem pearls have is impatience. If you are forging steel that likes yellow heat a white hot fire is to hot. It burns fuel to fast and will, if your inattentive burn your steel. the first heat is like roasting the perfect marshmello. Slowly tossed till the outside is golden brown and the middle is gooey. The second heat always goes faster. now in my forges, I can burn hard coal with an electric bed pump (I can melt hard fire brick if I don’t throttle it back. I use a “T” and a ball valve. Depending on the fuel and what I am working on it may be with the strait branch inline or a Eros the tuyere. the great thing about the JABOD forge is it only costs time to reconfigure it. Experiment till it works for you. I know what works for me and can build one and have it going in under an hour, leg hole included!

Ok, so I build side blast forges thus. From the hearth I make a trench 5” or so deep with the bottom of the tuyere pipe 1” off the floor of the trench. The trench is 4” wide and sloped about 45 deg. From the ends with the tuyere coming in the strait side. then I build walls on each side about 4” tall. This creates the same effect of banking coal. It burns hard and soft coal as well as charcoal. This might help.

“I will cut”…

Here in the central part of the state the meth head scrapers have sold them to be melted down in china. many that have survived are at forged in fire inspired prices

You will also learn to only give enough air to heat the steel to forging temp and not welding temp. This saves fuel and steel, lol

Wooden or steel legs, but yes

Triangle bells sound better if they are spring steel (I use sucker rod) and off set the gap so that the branches are of different length. Oh and use a price of cord or leather thong to hand it.

I agree with the masses, stand her up tall and use the 6x8 end. As an anvil. If you have access to a mag-drill you can add a hardy hole fairly easaly. A bick isn’t a difficult project build and mount to a separate stump. If your really want to weld on a horn start with a 3” square hunk and mill a 1” slot in one end and deadly chanfer the edges so as to get full 1” welds. Thus a horn and a hardy hole

On a mine tour in Arizona, I was told if you missed the stem of the star drill and hit your partners hand it was your turn to hold the drill and his to swing the hammer! law many times I have hit my left hand missing a chisel knocking out rivets, I would have to pass!

If you come up with a suitable stump that is simply to short, a tripod to set it on works well. Gives you a wood block with legs. There is at-least one production farrier anvil stand built that way.

If you can’t come up with a better stump, fabricate one either out of construction lumber or a steel tripod.

Knee bent and anvil rung

Ask your self how much steel can you forge before you run out of heat. If your doing large scrolls or such that is probably 6 inches or so. One burner forge dose 90% of what you need if your hand forging. It will even handle heat treat up to 10-12” of blade length tho 6-8” is a more practical length. multiple forges are almost a must for efficiency with gassers. or a good solid fuel forge and a small gasser…

Poetry clay, fire clay, bentonite clay, red or gray bank clay… Any of them will do the job, you can use sand or crushed brick (or pottery) about 1/2 ratio. (I part clay,2 parts sand) makes a good adobe. The mix is fairly forgiving. 1/4 clay works, as dose 1/2 sand. Remember that natural soil will have silt so that’s why clay/sand doesn’t always make 100%. welding is the only time I melt bricks, so most the time it’s not a problem.

I melt hard bricks if I get carried away, lol. And that is with charcoal. If you want to protect them just give them an inch or two of adobe over them

Tho I use red brick and hard fire brick to augment my side blasts and JBODS, I have a habit of melting them. building a permanent forge, using brick for the hearth is fine but not the fire pot. It’s easy to build one out of steel plate, but traditionally it was a box filled with fly ash and clinker.

The horn (double horn in my case) and cut off are why mine is built the way it is. If you have a good drill press a 3/8” pritchel hole can be drilled in clang/web joint. If you drill it deal enugh a hold down can be used in it. Don’t forget to cross drill so you can clean out any junk that falls in the hole. I will get you a picture of an anvil tool

Yep, long hot dry summer here too. West looks to have done ok, corn was ok but not great and soybeans are being bailed for hay and turned in for crop insurance.

I find that a quarter inch or so plate forged to set over the face with tabs over the web with a block welded on make good anvil tools, welding to rail is a PITA unless you have experience as an t would be heated to 500f or so first. I simply drilled a pritchel hole were the web needs the flange, and a hole could be drilled in the web allowing you to use a chain hold down.

TW, better get up to speed, for most home owners electric is a better deal. No bad gas and gummed up carbs. i remember a neighbor putting a 1-1/2 110 ac electric motor on his tiller. As he only used it once a year the extencial cord wasn’t any worse than one on a floor buffer. I do have a “small” engine. 1300 cc Suzuki, lol

With charcoal it should help with fuel consumption. nice thing about the low cost and materials availability for dirt on can experiment to see what works for you, your work and fuel.

Cooler weather! this spell of Phoenix hot and Ft. Benning humid truly sucks

No worries, Jerry. I am still taking the occasional nap after a bought with the Omicron variant. Sandy is struggling with the fact it has a aggravated her Hashimoto’s.

I find building a trench with walls about 4” wide is more fuel efferent than banking fuel on the hearth and trying to keep all the charcoal from lighting.