Latticino

Kast-o-lite is an insulating refractory that would be better for making doors out of. Check the thermal transmission value. I don't remember, but I believe that last time I checked it transmits almost 4 times as much heat as an equivalent thickness of refractory blanket. Not as big a deal for the doors as there you are mostly trying to contain the IR, but I would still plan on at least 2" thickness of casting. Of course, you are planning on making a rather small forge, so should be careful regarding adding too much thermal mass. I've never personally used it for a forge floor, so can't recommend specifically, but it certainly will be better than just the blanket insulation.. Mizzou and Greencast are "hard" refractories (like hard brick) that would do better for flooring reinforcement IMHO. For that a thin casting will work well (1/2 - 3/4"). You should also consider casting some hard refractory opposite your burner port, if that isn't the floor already. Good luck and remember to post pictures when you get it up and running.

For a limited use forge I would recommend a light casting of either 1/2" thick Mizzou or a high alumina refractory like Greencast 97 if you can't source either high alumina kiln shelves or high alumina split hard firebrick.

Sell it to someone and see what they will pay for it. Not to be facetious, but anvil value varies widely dependent on where you live and what the local demand is for blacksmithing tools (or "collectable antiques", unfortunately). There are more rare anvils, and condition matters as well, not to mention how quickly you want to turn it over. If in decent condition list it for under $1 a pound and it will fly out of your hands. You may have to wait a bit if listed for $3 a pond or more, unless it is something special. Some areas are paying up to $5 a pound, but that is typically for a more rare size or type in excellent condition. Don't be fooled by pricing on e-bay.

Not sure where you got the "not much learning" from. I took James's Viking axe class as well, admittedly at a different location, and learned quite a bit about axe forging as well as some good group forging procedures. Perhaps you were just too advanced a smith for the class, but I found Jim to be quite expert and very willing to share his techniques.

Not to drift the subject all that much (fascinating video, BTW, thanks for sharing), but did anyone notice where his hammer hand thumb was placed? Guess some professional smiths do set it on top, at least for detail work.

Steve, I'm pretty sure you already know that is incorrect. Many anvils are marked in English hundredweight, but hardly all of them. I've personally seen some marked in pound weight as well as kilograms.

Why not square it up with a cape chisel and a bunch of filing? That way you will not only keep the budget aspect of the tool, you can say you made it yourself. The difficulty with hardening anvils is their mass. It is not just heating the whole thing up to the correct temperature for quenching, but having enough cold fluid to harden it quickly enough (think rivers, waterfalls and fire hydrants - though I did see a YouTube of someone quenching an anvil in a kiddie swimming pool...). Of course then you have to temper it. From a short search it appears that rail may be in the 1080 family, so heat treatment shouldn't be that hard, but the capability to get it up to temperature and safely handle it at 1450 deg. F is not as easy. Please be safe. The real issue as far as efficiency goes is that you have limited anvil mass directly under where you will be working. This means to forge any sizable stock you will be working a whole lot harder to move the metal than you would otherwise. I suggest you take the longest of the remaining of your other free chunks and stand it vertically from a massive stand if possible. Clean up the top end of that and use it for your basic forging. Then you can use this anvil for straightening, bends, hardy work (once you get the hole finished) as well as finishing up things like bottle openers. The time you put into setting this up will likely serve you better than hardening, but I haven't tried to harden rail to date, so take that for what it is worth. Good Luck

Had an interesting foray into looking at Rumford's chimney designs. It appears that he made two basic enhancements to design of the current fireplaces of the time: Changing the inlet of the chimney to be closer to the fire and smaller to induce higher local flue velocity to aid in capture of fumes Adding mass to the fireplace to the fireplace and brining it forward of the rear wall to provide more efficient radiant heating for the room. While I agree the "necking down" profile of the hood initially mirrors some of his design, and appreciate being introduced to it for general knowledge, I'm not sure how it specifically applies to the double enlargement indicated. I also doubt the improved induced draft of the OP hood featured based on this double expansion, though it is hard to argue with experimental success. As regards increase in capture velocity, the proximity to the forge fire and relative small opening size of the standard side draft hood would appear to function well for that. I don't see where a double expansion chamber improves that, but I could certainly be missing something. In my experience, rapid expansions in exhaust ducting results in turbulence, which can lead to friction and lowered velocity. Of course the ~10' high, large diameter, stack in the design features will both reduce the stack friction and lead to a very effective chimney effect exhaust. I would expect that a similarly sized hood opening, placed in the same proximity to the fire with a smooth transition to the stack would actually suck more air. I still think that the baffle design is more optimized to prevent hot ash and small bits of burning material from being sucked up the stack and pushed out the top by this very effective chimney effect. Essentially I agree that it is a very good design, just not necessarily with the reason cited.

I am curious about the hood design used for the sidedraft hoods on the new Green coal forge stations. Is the "z-bend" baffle at the back setup to minimize the fly ash going up the stack? It seems like the angled slope at the bottom and baffle section directly above would work well for that.

Brandon, Welcome. Don't know where in western NY you are located, but urge you too look into joining a local chapter of ABANA the New York State Designer Blacksmith group: http://www.nysdb.org/ You can learn a lot and meet local smiths who might be able to help you out with your anvil search or suggest alternatives. Locating an anvil these days is pretty dependent on how much you are willing to spend. If you are ready to drop $5+ /lb. you can easily source one and get something premium. If you want to keep down to a more modest $3/lb. you will have to search longer (or go to SOFA next year). If you want to go under $2/lb. you will have to get devious and obsessive in your searching. A rail anvil, correctly supported, can be great for bladesmithing. Look into setting it vertically to keep the mass under the hammer head. You also might want to join the blacksmithing for beginner's Tailgating section on Facebook. There are a lot of members, but I have seen anvils featured there periodically. Needless to say many have had success using the TPAAAT method. I'm sure Tomas Powers will chime in to clarify that.

Glad to help. You asked good questions and described your issues in a competent fashion. You were respectful and listened to advise without letting your ego get in the way. A good model for forum participation. I wish more Newbies would follow that. As regards your welding friend's estimate of regulator size/type perhaps they were confused by the relative pressure required for closed system torches (where the oxygen is fed in in a pressurized fashion) instead of a naturally aspirated burner (where the gas feed speed induces the air intake. I don't know for sure. I think I remember using an Oxy/Propane torch and needing to set the propane pressure up over 10 psi though, but that was quite a while ago. 2 bar is right around 30 psi, so that should work fine.

Listen, if you are going to insult those who are trying to help you then you are on your own as far as I care. For what it is worth I agree with all that Iron Dwarf has posted except the point about burning thru the floor. Have fun reinventing the wheel.

Adjustable regulators are more useful for forges than fixed pressure regulators. Hard to tell from the photo, but yours should have a hand operated adjustment at the top. I use a 0-60 psi one like this with a pressure gage attached (widely available online for around $30): Sorry just read more carefully and saw that you have an adjustable regulator. Unfortunately it is only 2.8kPa (0.4 psi?). Regulators are also rated for throughput of gas. Look for one sized for a roofing torch or weed burner.

I agree that your flame issue is most likely related to the tank and regulator sizing. I would expect you to need at least one tank and 30 psi adjustable regulator for each of those burners. The other major issue is the one that ID and TP noted: your forge construction. Even if the side walls have 2" of insulation you appear to have included a lot of thermal mass with the hard bricks lining the sides. Those will take a good while to heat up, and unless you are going into some serious production cycles you will have trouble. The other issue is the forge floor. Hard to tell from the photo, but is that a 1" thick kiln shelf with no, or little, insulation backing it up? There you have not only a heat sink, but a direct passage to the forge exterior for that heat to escape. Very curious what kind of projects you are doing that require that length of stock to be heated simultaneously. Typically I see long twists or bends being done iteratively (in short sections added up). If it is, say, a heat treating chamber for swords, there are better designs too keep the interior temperature stable. In fact if you expect this design to heat stock evenly along the length I expect you will be disappointed as well, as there will likely be hot spots at each of the burner locations.

You are pretty much there as regards your welding steps. A couple of enhancements: Control the atmosphere of your gas forge to minimize scaling during heating (or work in the reducing zone of your coal forge with just enough air running to keep coals glowing yellow/white) Heat, scarf the far end, and cut 1/2-3/4 way through with a hot cut Brush vigorously to remove any scale with a coarse brush (can lightly dust with flux here, but not required) Heat, brush and fold closed and flux Heat carefully to welding temperature (flux bubbling, metal surface looking soft like melting butter). If in coal forge hopefully you have a nice clean beehive and can soak at that temperature for a short time (different for different stock sizes) with the air shut down almost all the way. Coals will continue to heat the stock for a little bit, and steel won't burn without excess air Out of the forge to anvil quickly. Have hammer in hand already. Hit as soon as stock hits anvil. I like to think of it as a "medium hard dead-blow". The goal is to stick the two surfaces together without making them shift around or bounce apart. Flux and heat again the same way. Harder hammering to complete weld and start forming OK now Complete forging, keeping at close to welding heat for this area. That is what works for me. YMMV

Based on the photo of your burner in action I would expect too much of everything. I expect you need to throttle it back a lot to slow down the flame speed at the burner outlet so the business end can heat the opposite wall. We don't talk about it a lot here, but if I recall correctly you can have burners that are too large for their combustion enclosures as well as too small. I believe a sign of this is the quantity of flame shooting out of the forge openings. I have a similar problem with a 1/2" Frosty Tee and a quickie paint can forge I cobbled together. Will have to check if I put the right size MIG tip in it and reduce same if possible.

Another alternative is to fold back a couple of inches of the 1/2" stock at the end of your shoehorn blank and forge weld it together. A good exercise for forge welding.

Like your burner mod. Adjustable location for the gas orifice is a nice touch for the T burner. Wonder if using a plumber's cross fitting would allow you to keep the same kind of simple tools build while also allowing this enhancement. Not sure if they are available with reducing fittings, still the way I've needed to shroud the inlet of my 1/2" Frosty Tee I'm not completely convinced that a standard fitting won't work. The burner looks far too big for the (2) brick forge design, so I'm interested to see how it performs in such a small chamber. As regards your refractory castable, I was not able to find info on same from the MORCO site. I recommend that you follow the manufacturer's directions carefully for installation. Also that you check if it is actually a "rammable" material that needs to be installed in a plastic state by hammering it onto a solid surface. If so you may have trouble installing it into a fiber blanket shell, as you would with a true castable, and may need to use an alternate construction method (ram material into a temporary mold then remove and wrap with frax blanket). Good luck in any event. Look forward to pictures of your complete forge working.

Shame you missed the Hay Budden. Those are top quality. I am not familiar with the e-bay anvil pictured, so decline to comment.

This is a modern farrier's pattern anvil, and looks to be priced at around half what it would cost you new. A lot depends on what you are planning on doing with it. These anvils are optimized for farriers and the anvil mass is not located in the same spot as it would be for, say, ideal hammer head forging. Still better than using a piece of rail laid horizontally. I thought I read somewhere that these anvils were given out at a farrier training facility as part of the course, so that may be why they are showing up more often these days. Personally I think 125# is a good weight for a starter anvil, or one that you need to keep mobile for hammer-ins, or if you need to move your shop around a lot. I believe that these are cast ductile iron anvils, which are certainly better than the cast iron ASO you see on e-bay or Harbor Freight. All depends on how common anvils are by you. At approximately $3/# I would probably search longer, but each to his own.

Needless to repeat, I wasn't sure on it's provenance, but said it was an Oliver style, not an Oliver (which are non-powered treadle hammers). Mostly I was looking at the hammer weight to arm length ratio. I was not familiar with the Depew or Blacker hammers, thanks for bringing them up. If we are going to be pedantic, I think you meant "helve" not "shelve", but got caught by autocorrect. I'm also not sure what you mean by "unsprung weight". Certainly this model includes a leaf spring set between the drive motor/eccentric cam-flywheel and the hammer end. While the sprung drive will give some of the whipping motion that enables tire hammers to function so well, I stand by my assertion that safety in operation should be a real concern with this design. I believe that many of the older helve hammers involved much larger hammer head weights moving a lot more slowly than this one appears to (though I haven't been able to source the video, just from the assumed ratio of the pulley to the cam). Of course I'm always willing to learn otherwise.

Very nice first hawk. Wish mine had looked that good. I've made a couple of spike hawks recently so I can see what your issues might be. They aren't all that easy, mostly because the spike isn't really correctly sized to make a hawk without some modification. Of course that is what we are supposed to be doing as smiths... Recommend that you upset the spike a bit before slitting it (you are slitting it or slot punching to maximize the material for the eye right?). Upsetting the spike is a pain, but will give you some more mass where you need it. I also recommend that you modify your drift/mandrel so it isn't round shaped. Hawks have a number of different shaped eyes, historically, but I think the round one is the least useful (hawk can rotate with hard use) and aesthetic. Of course that is just me, and there certainly are some round eyes out there. A nice design is the "point forward" egg crossection. You also need to think more in terms of using the drift as a mandrel. As you are opening the eye you should try to pull the cheeks down toward the handle end with your crosspeen. If you look at the section as you are doing this it will allow you to slightly adjust the eye location in the stock to cure some off centeredness (or make it worse, as I have found to my dismay at times). All in all, nice job. You did a better job keeping the spike head end intact than I do, probably because I spend so much time working on upsetting the mass just below it.

Why? at times it makes it easier to understand the response.

Leaf blower most likely is huge overkill for the air requirement for a coal forge. You will have to dump most of the air and put up with the scream of that blower. I recommend looking for an alternate. Ball valves won't work well as an ash dump. The ash will get into the mechanism and clog it up. Ideally a flapper type valve with a counterweight works really well. I suggest you do some more research into coal forge design (stickies on this site, Anvilfire, old FABA articles...)

Agree, but with one caveat: If you are practicing techniques for forging knives with spikes and expect the steel to move under the hammer while hot in the same way once you use actual high carbon steel you are in for a surprise. It will be harder to work, and will need to be worked in a different temperature band to avoid either burning the steel at the high end or cracking it at the low end. Mild steel just works differently. Also one of the key elements of making a good knife is heat treatment. You can't learn that technique with mild steel. That is why, given the relative low cost of, say, automotive spring drops from a shop that replaces them (to date free with a little dumpster diving for me), many folks strongly recommend that you use actual high carbon steel to forge knives out of once you get basic forging skills under your belt. Of course anyone is free to go their own path. We are just making recommendations based on our experience and trying to help.