Charles R. Stevens

If you take a shoe and place one branch so the inside edge of the up facing heel is on the heel of the anvil and strike just off anvil with a rounding hammer you can back bend the heel and form a double coal hook. I close the tow up. You can weld it to another shoe, a horse shoe heart of bent the to over and punch it to form a stand alone coat hook. horse shoe sun wreaths are also nice. Use the same trick and then draw the heals to a point. Close the toe up a bit and then lay them toe in to form a ring of the desired size. Now forge another set of shoes with the opposite bend and creat a second ring and then tack the two rings one on top of the other. don’t forget horse shoe trivets, hoof picks and hearts. Garden tool hooks are another one as are drawer pulls from shoes and toilet paper hangers from cheap curb bits. Or towel rings from snaffle bits. I have also seen shoes straitened to make strips for horse sculptures.

Automotive parts are cast, such as pistons, manifolds and such, avoid the magnesium under the steering wheels tho. That might be a bit dramatic.

I recommend building the trench stile side blast as illustrated in the above link. Buy moving the tuyere to the side of your bread pan and then sculpting a trench and side walls with stiff mud, brick or steel you will have a more efficient charcoal forge that will still burn soft coal. long trench fires aren’t very efficient for forging as you can only forge about 6” at a time, so it’s not efficient to burn that much fuel.

Carful George, I got a call from Glenn for telling a troll to “crawl back under your bridge” lol. Rest assured I am sharpening my axe tho… I hope it’s just exuberance of youth, if he is half as hard headed as the rest of us and can reign it in a bit he will fit in well.

Every one is telling you what is wrong with your forge, and tho I agree with them let’s talk about what is right. I have seen similar designs for raw wood and charcoal on YouTube, and with the small air supply (those import blowers aren’t really up to large coal forges) and they work ok for knife heat treating forges but not as good for forging. Try cleaning out your tuyere (the pipe with the slot) and piling about 8” of lump charcoal in your forge. It will eat it up pretty fast but it should work ok. know if you would like help reworking your forge to heat 1” square stock let me know. I do have one question, as to your coal. Is it hard (stove coal from tracto supply or the like) or soft (blacksmith/farrier)? Hard coal and hand cranked blowers aren’t a good fit.

I am so sorry to hear you have fallen victim to the scourge of blacksmithing addiction…

Outstanding! Now buy a 40# ruble sledge and tell your helpers that your going to forge anchor chain! Lol

As they are probably using a lathe to thread it is easier to thread first. Easier to make a thread on cheater.

Yeah, got to keep it PG13! , lol.

1mm is probably overkill, but it keeps with the blacksmith look. Bent flanges and rivets are good if you melt stuff.

As long as it’s larger than the stock and at least as big as the hammer.

I like 3/4” schedule 40 pipe, it’s right in the middle of the 3/4-1” in the historic record. There is some evidence of heavy copper tuyeres being used in bloomidary furnaces judging from the Loki soap stone hearth stone I would of i think the single wall style is most likely. anvils are the place where 6” of rail works well. their are some Asian hammers that look right but you may just have to make your own. 1-1/2 to 2# is what the record shows.

http://www.warehamforge.ca/mobile/ http://warehamforgeblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/quality-replica-anvils-va-iron-economy.html?m=1 TP has a good 1k bc demo setup. Google “Viking era” insert blacksmithing, anvils, iron making, hammers, bellows etc. bellows thralls are hard to come buy, I have a step son I will let you have, cheep… lit you are trying to be 100% correct start buy digging a knee deep hole to stand or sit in. Ground forges are a thing.

To true, we don’t need a two inch “J” shaped anvil!. Remember black is hot.

Sagging isn’t going to be a problem unless it’s really long. A typical bending die will be a stud that matches the ID of the bend with a second stud that is just a fraction larger than the stock (it dose expand hot). You need a bit of extra tail to make your bend, I’d you leave it short it won’t hook over the stud right. I would use a port-a-power or 2 ton come-along and a cheater on the threaded end. Solid yellow heat is what you need, but the thicker the bar the longer it takes to heat the center, adjust your forge to just hotter than what you want. It’s hard to burn big stock but it can happen wile your trying to get the center hot. Think perfectly toasted marshmallow. Foster on the outside and gooey on the inside, not burnt and cold. I have straitened 2” bail spikes. It’s impressive.

Some pearls are never happy!

See the “tired of bick in the thigh” thread…. Seriously less is more when it comes to “repairing” an anvil.

We don’t have to drive that far! Around here you just put the dog in for the nite.

If you don’t like the bick in the thigh, just raise it a few inches….

If the ventilation guru suggests 50% I would start there. You can always cut it larger. Then again one can always make a slide door and make it adjustable.

Can you lower the tuyere? Unless it’s an illusion it looks high. From the top of the tuyere opening 4” to the top of the hearth is generally a good hight. fill the box to an inch or so of the top. Dig a hole down to an inch below the tuyere opening. The hood doesn't need to be huge, I have seen a been can used. So an inch of coal or coke on the table brings it level with a mound about 4-5” tall over the hole

That is looking mighty blacksmithy right there! I would start with an opening 80% of the flue area. You can always make the opening larger. Say to 85 or 87%. a wad of paper in the flue opening will jump start the draw and cut down on start up smoke. with a good flue you don’t have to get crazy with ventilation, but don’t neglect it either.

You need the blast to be right up to the fuel on one side and the bottom of the fuel needs to be about an inch below the bottom of the tuyere. Once you start your wood/charcoal fire you need to rake the coke back over the hot coals. Many use a wad of paper. Dig your hole, light the paper and give it a little air, rake the fuel over it and increase the blast until the coal/coke start and then go full blast. Coke and hard coal need constant air or they will go out in just a few minuets. Soft coal will go out in about 1/2 an hour.

With the can in the trailer I think it might be a kiln. A heck of a lot more effecent to skin it and build a fire box.

I am sure it would make for better flow but square would be easier to fabricate. 12” elbows are expensive