Sam Falzone

Buddy... Here's a link for that washtub charcoal forge I mentioned. Charcoal Forge Good luck. Aeneas

WOW ... 13 ... For 13 I would actually recommend making a charcoal forge for your first forge. Brake drum forges are great with coal and coke, but there are some differences in forge designs between coal and charcoal you should know about. Coal and coke are much heavier than charcoal and their forge designs tend to be what's called "bottom blast" design. The air delivery comes up from the bottom of the firepot (in this case, the brake drum) through a opening in the centre attached to the tuyere. This gives you an efficient and controlled burn of your fuel. Charcoal forges are usually "side blast" design which means the air is delivered from the side of the fuel pile through the tuyere. There are some charcoal forges that have air delivery from below, but these tend to have small holes in the tuyere for the air instead of large openings (1" or larger) like in other forges. There are some great plans for a washtub forge in this forum (look them up). The reason for this major difference in coal and charcoal is mainly because charcoal in a bottom blast forge (like a brake drum) would be blown up and out of the forge by the air balst because it is so light - this makes a huge shower of sparks and embers making a very dangerous situation. This doesn't happen with coal or coke because it is heavier. Charcoal forges are really easy to build. You could build a simple forge with a 4" deep table packed to the top with sand, some fireplace bricks as a heat shield for your air supply, a 1" steel or copper pipe for your tuyere and an old hairdryer with a high and low speed for your blower - no welding skills needed. Should do for most smithing applications as you learn techniques (maybe not forge welding). The other reason I recommend charcoal is that it is usually easier to find and buy than coal or coke (depending where you live). You do burn up charcoal much faster than coal or coke, but you're only 13, you're not making a carreer of this (at least not yet) so you probably won't be running your forge as long as some of the people in this forum do. Fuel costs won't be as crucial an issue for you as it would be for a full-time smith. A jumbo bag of charcoal can last you quite a while when you're first starting out. Later as you get older and more experience under your hammer, you can always switch to coal, coke or propane. The other thing i like about charcoal is its safety. Coal and coke can stay hot for quite a while after you've turned off your blower and finished for the day. You could have glowing hot coals underneath a layer that looks like it's cold. Charcoal burns itself out completely in a shorter time. Its a minor point but I feel better at the end of a demo knowing that I will end up with cold ashes when I pack stuff up. I'm glad to here your parents are supportive in this - you're a lucky guy. I hope you have a lot of fun with whatever forge you build. Don't be afraid to ask question - you have an unbelievable resource in the skills and knowledge from all the people on this forum. Aeneas

Mine is my sig-line: "Even the Mighty Oak started off as a nut who stood its ground." Another one I like is: "For $5.00 I'll write a story about you ... for $10.00, I wont ..."

Greetings Aarchas from Hamilton Ontario, Good luck with your bid on that diamondback. I wanted to share with you one other option - last month I got to try a homebuilt forge made by one of this forum's members, Solvarr. He made his forge out of a surplus SAW ammo can. No welding was involved and he ended up with a single burner propane forge that had a pass through for large pieces and could reach welding heats (I know because I was taking a forge welding class with Solvarr at the time). The best part is that Solvarr said he made his forge for under $150.00 - that's less than half of nearly anything else I've seen on the web or ebay. This forge was sweet. Powerful enough for nearly any job, but really lightweight and portable. I'm looking into making one myself and both of my students want to also. BTW, the one I used in that class had been used for over 2 years as a general production forge and still looked to be in good shape. If you want more info, you can find the thread under "Ammo Can" in the Blacksmithin' section and pictures in the Blueprints section. Welcome to IFI - you're gonna like it here. Keep hammerin' Aeneas

I had to vote with AC electric. My main forge is the one in my classroom - it's a Wayne NG forge with electric blower. But I also have a charcoal forge for re-enactment demos and those use a side-by-side double lung (bag) bellows. aeneas

I'm with Welder19 on this one. Rotor drums make great firepots for home built forges. You can find great plans on-line, or maybe even in the Blueprints section of IFI (if you can't, email me and i'll send you a great set of plans i found a few years back). If you don't need a forge for yourself, ask around your area if there are any up-and-coming smiths looking to build their first forge and donate the drums, maybe even offer to help in the build - sorta help spread the obsession ... uhh, I mean ... tradition. Aeneas

Hi James, Is that Waterloo Ontario??? I live in Hamilton. Welcome - you're gonna like it here. Aeneas (Sam Falzone)

That's going to look sweet. Good luck. You get a lot of rain in your part of Australia? How long does corro-iron last in your area? Nice anvil too. My plans are to convert my drive-shed into a smithy - someday soon. aeneas

Dchae, Good luck with your training. All these people have given really good advice about martial arts, so I won't try because I'm no martial artist. But I am a science teacher and my only advice (take it or not) is that more weight = more inertia and momentum. Whatever form your "swing-training" takes (staff, sword, etc) be careful. All that inertia and momentum can seriously mess up your shoulders and rotator-cuffs - sometimes irrepairable damage, no matter how much weight training you've done. It would be a shame to have trained so hard for a goal only to be stopped short by a severe injury (I don't even want to think about never being able to swing a hammer again). Again, good luck. Have fun. Be safe. Keep hammerin'. Aeneas

The first hammer I learned on was a 2lb Swedish pattern hammer - unfortunately it wasn't mine. I loved that hammer and I still love that style of pattern, but I haven't got around to buying some of my own ... yet. My main hammers now are both no-name german pattern cross peins I bought at a hole-in-the-wall tool shop (1000gr and 800gr) but I also have several other ball-peins that I tend to use on occasion. But my absolute favourite is still my 1000gr cross-pein. Speaking of hammers, I got to take a class with Solvarr and Drogo last month and Drogo let me use his hammer. It felt like a 2lb, but it had a short handle that just felt SWEET!!! It had some great action. And I think that is one of the main points, that several have touched on - a good part of that good feel is the handle. Handle shape, diameter, length, all these things are part of a good hammer, not just the weight and shape of the head. For my work style, I find I like short handles more than longer ones. And I've found that my comfortable working weight is around 800-1000gr. So when you get a new hammer, spend some quality time with it and a belt sander. Trust your senses and tune that handle until it feels just right. I'm planning to expand my hammer collection in the future - definitely getting some swedish pattern hammers, but I'll always have my trusty cross-pein.

Greetings all, I got really interested in this thread because I have experience with charcoal forging and I've even participated in several charcoal iron smelting experiments with a group here in Ontario. I use a charcoal forge in my spare time because I live in the city and I can't run coal (pollution bylaws) and I haven't made a propane forge yet. Coal and Charcoal fines are the dust and tiny bits and peices found at the bottom of the bag or pile. I find they burn up extremely quick and all you get is a shower of sparks for your troubles. For the question of lump charcoal or briquettes - stick with lump charcoal. The reason charcoal is such a good forging fuel is that it is almost completely pure carbon and burns really clean, the way coke burns cleaner than coal because all the junk has been cooked out of it. Briquettes are really just small bits of charcoal that are glued together with some kind of binder to give them a bigger shape. For forging, it's the binder in the briquettes that's the problem. The original question was regarding welding with charcoal. You can definitely weld with lump charcoal because it burns so clean - that gives you a clean weld. The junk in the briquettes reacts chemically with the steel and gives you really bad welds, if you get a weld at all. The finest swords ever made don't lie. A small part of their success is because of the fuel they used - clean burning lump charcoal. I've never heard of cowboy charcoal, we use Royal Oak in our smelts and forges, but any brand of good quality natural lump charcoal will do. For Outsider - great looking forge !!! Thanks for th link. Aeneas

I have no idea, and I don't think he's on this forum. Are you on the Early Iron yahoogroup? I know he's on that list. If you're not i could just pass on the question to him. This is going to sound weird but I'm really appreciative of the discussions today. I got news this morning that a dear friend of mine has passed on, and all this discussing blacksmithing and bellows and viking anvils has been a good distraction and quite comforting. I appreciate that more than I can say right now. Thanks ... everyone. Aeneas

Yup, a proper Norse-style bellows, 2 lungs side-by-side hooked up to the tue pipe. Darrell wouldn't let us get away with anything less (or at least he'd never let us forget it ) We could just call them Viking-bellows ...? However I am thinking of eventually setting up my shed as a smithy and building a charcoal forge (I live in the city and can't run coal) with a stacked 2 lung bellows. I'm also planning on setting up 2 propane work stations (eventually) for teaching and or groups projects. Long term plans. aeneas

I know Darrell uses a sand table setup with a soapstone bellows shield. Our (Ken and mine) forge set up is actually a firebox made of 1.25" ash planks, standing about 3' high. It originally had an ash plank shelf for the firebox to sit on when we first tested it out, but we also only had enough fire brick to make a single layer of lining all around the sides and bottom. Burned out the ash bottom after 3 hours of demo, but the box carcass was unsinged luckily. It now has a plate steel bottom, a sheet metal liner and 2 layers of soft brick all around and on the bottom, with 2 bricks standing on end to make a bellows shield. Gives us a 12x12x4 firebox. Works like a charm, and looks good too. Ken made a norse 2 lung bellows and we both made square anvils from 5x5 mild steel blocks. We "dressed: up the sides to make it look old and hand worked (I've never worked with that kind of mass ever before - the block was on the anvil 14 inches away from me and my apron was smoking), quench hardened them, ground and filed the table smooth, ground and filed 3 different radii on 3 edges leaving one edge sharp. I even hot chiseled my mark on the side. All in all it's a nice set-up and looks good at a demo. Maybe not totally historically accurate. It was inspired by a firebox from the bayeax tapestry - in the image, it looks like they're cooking. I figured the only difference between cooking with charcoal and forging with charcoal is temperature and the volume of air delivery. So why not ??? Aeneas

Hi there, I was wondering if someone may have an answer for this. I have a really old cast iron pot that I cracked a few years back. This thing is huge and hard to replace and really old. Is there a way to weld a cracked cast iron pot and still make it useable (food safe and all that stuff)? If there is, how do you do it? Aeneas

Het Keykeeper, Thanks for the ID, I'll double check. BTW I love your sig.line. aeneas

Here's a picture of the forge workstation in my classroom. My anvil is a simple 110lb london pattern anvil (I haven't looked closely enough for any company markings). Nothing fancy, just meat and potatoes but she works just fine for me. I'm the shop teacher at my school and this is where I do most of my work. I havent got around to setting up a shop at home yet, but my friend Ken and I have built a portable Norse style charcoal forge we set up at demos. It's based on a firebox image from the bayeaux tapestry and we just ran with it. Works really well too - we get a hot spot about the size of a grapefruit and can get welding temperatures out of it. I'll try to get around to taking some pictures some time. Aeneas

Jose, That is one sweet repair job. Unfortunately I don't know squat about welding. Is there anyone on this forum in the southern Ontario region who can do a repair job like this? Tha would be good to know for any future problems. Aeneas

Hey Frosty, You know anyone looking to buy an anvil in Alaska? The Alaska Juneau gold mine is selling a monster 375# Peter Wright anvil for $700.00. That's an unbelievable bargain, but a bit too far from Hamilton Ontario to ship. Just thought some people may be interested. Peter Wright #375 anvil Aeneas I still have to get around to taking pictures of my anvils. I lucked out this year, a collegue of mine was getting rid of the anvils in his class so I scored 2 110lb london pattern anvils for free. The tables have seen a bit of abuse and have some chips, but they still have a lot of life left in them. I lent one to a friend of mine and I lent the other to my 2 students (they're brothers) until they get their own.

Hi Rich, I did some comparing on-line and Solvarr's ammo can is a SAW can, the regular .50 cal cans are a bit smaller. I don't know how this would effect the forge performance. The only thing I can think of is the smaller can has a smaller cubic volume (remember the 350 cubic inches for one burner?) - could this possibly be too much heat for the refractory to handle??? More experienced people than me would know. If people are interested, I have found quite a few SAW .50 cal cans on ebay - some entries are even for multiple cans 2, 3, 4 ... 96 (someone is selling a skid of 96 ammo boxes for over $300.00). Hope this helps. aeneas

No luck here. I've met a few women blacksmiths but only once or twice. It takes me a while to remember names. But I don't think I've met one at Pennsic. Sorry. I'd love to meet her though. Aeneas

Hi Solvarr, I loved using your ammo can forge during your class at Pennsic. It worked amazingly well. I'm trying to convince my friend that this is a kind of portable forge set-up we should build. Thanks for all the information and pictures. Aeneas

Hi Firegirl, Try metalsupermarkets.com. They carry brass, copper and bronze. They list it as architectural bronze so I don't know what it's alloyed with but they have stores all over the US and Canada. I've had great experience with the stores near me (Toronto and Hamilton) - however I've never ordered bronze before. Good luck. Aeneas

Hi Solvarr, It's Aeneas (Sam), I took your Forge Welding class last week at Copper's Lake (Pennsic). I'm glad I found you and this forum (thanks for the tip). I really enjoyed that article you posted - some definite words of wisdom there about what it takes to be a craftsman and market yourself. Personally, I completely suck at selling. Everything I've ever made I've given away. I've always looked at it as, "If what I create makes someone happy, then that's good enough for me." Good thing I'm only a hobby blacksmith. I'd soon starve with that kind of philosophy. Look forward to talking with you soon. Aeneas

Hi there, My name is Sam and this is my first post to I Forge Iron. I met Solvarr and Drogo this passed week in Pennsylvania and they told me all about this forum so I thought I'd give it a try. I've been a hobbiest smith for the passed 6 or 8 years - mostly self taught. I've worked with natural gas, propane, coal and charcoal forges but my favourites are coal and charcoal. I'm a member of 2 re-enactment groups, one medieval (SCA) and one Norse (DARC). I'm really looking forward to learning a lot from the things people have posted and I'm looking forward to great discussions. Aeneas / Sam