BlackKnight0739

Ordered! Thanks for going through the tremendous effort to make this book! I can’t wait to read it!

Mars is the Roman God of War, right? You can do something with that if nothing else resonates with you. Or if you're a space nerd like me, you can use the planet itself as an inspiration for your maker's mark! Whatever you choose, please post it here, I'd love to see the result!

Do you have a video of this you can link to? I'd like to see it if at all possible

As long as you check for leaks and use a reasonable amount of caution like Wayne said, gas lines are really not a big deal to work with. The pressures you'll be working with are really low, you'll be fine :-) One other thing to note is there is a thread tape specific for use with propane and other gas lines (the stuff I bought was yellow), make sure you use that if you are going to use thread tape! I don't have a 16 year track record (haven't been smithing that long lol), but I'm alive with no accidents to my name!

Layering kaowool is not only another way of lining a forge, it's the preferred method (like wpearson said)! It allows for easier maintenance of the forge when you're swapping out old kaowool, plus it's easier to manage thinner blankets than one big heavy one. Plus, who can argue with free kaowool? lol

This is amazing work Frosty!! Very impressive!

Ron Reil made snakes out of railroad spikes, here's the photos in his gallery (and how he did it): http://ronreil.abana.org/gallery.shtml I will be trying to make these this month, that's my goal project! I just need to find the time lol!

I built my own propane forge using Frosty's T-burner, it's not as intimidating as you think. Your project can be the design and construction of that forge (you can make the cart for it by hand as well), and your presentation can be using the forge to make a demo piece of your choosing. If you don't want to build a forge, Glenn's bench project is also an amazing idea as well!

My favorite beginner project is the leaf keychain personally. It teaches a lot of the basic skills and it shows that blacksmithing can be used for more than just functional things. It also carries a lot of wow factor (I still carry my first leaf to this day, and a lot of people are impressed by it). I also completely agree with SmoothBore, lack of familiarity with the hardware and terminology will slow your lesson down a LOT! The fact that you have so many projects packed into a day is great though, because even if you have to finish them on your next lesson it will give your student something to look forward to! Good luck to both of you! It's awesome to see the torch of knowledge is being passed on!

Frosty's burners don't like to light unless they're in a forge, or pointed towards an enclosure of fire bricks. A flare is usually not used on his burners either (I happen to have one and it works well, but most people don't). Try that first and see if it works!

I've been told to never use IR coating on firebrick, which made sense to me given the fact that it's pretty porous. My forge is an old converted propane tank with 2" thick kaowool with IR coating and a firebrick for a floor (in retrospect, two 1" thick sheets of kaowool would do the trick better, so good decision there!). My burner is a T-burner designed by our very own Frosty and it's been working great (thanks again for all the help with it! Frosty!), with my burner nozzle inset about an inch into the wool, and angled 15 degrees from top dead center (TDC). There isn't as much erosion around the wool as you'd think, especially if you preform the wool beforehand. It's pretty malleable, and once you form it and hit it with rigidizer you'll be more than fine! I didn't use any rigidizer and it formed a flare pretty well for me! The brick will be fine too, I'd be more worried about your steel damaging it more than anything else. If you want to see any photos, I'll PM you some no problem (don't want to spam them here unless asked for).

I don't let mine in the shop at all, it stays in the main part of the house and that's it. But mine is a strictly indoor animal, so that choice may not be available to you.

First off, great weld! Looks really nice! Practice a LOT before attempting to weld your O-1, but other than that you're on the right track. I don't personally use the coat hanger trick as it takes precious time to conduct, what I'd suggest is to use it until you can recognize welding heat when you see it without the test. Forge welding is all about speed, accuracy, and just the right amount of force behind the blows. Tapping lightly is the key to it, which it seems you have learned "Is it better to heat the entire billet, and attempt to forge weld the entire length in a single heat, rather then attempt to do it in sections?" A single heat is best in nearly every circumstance, as it takes less time and fuel to perform a task. If it's possible to forge weld it in one shot, do it. Keep at it and you'll be there in no time!

That's a LOT of coal! You could try a small batch in an oven at 180F (well below any ignition temperature) for 10-20 minutes, wrapping it in foil or something to keep your oven clean. I think you might have to limp along that way until it warms up more in VA, then spreading it out should work :-)

You'd be surprised where gems of knowledge are hidden; I'd keep an open mind when people are trying to share something to be perfectly honest with you. How do you know your coworker didn't get lessons from his grandfather and that's what got him into machining in the first place? Some of the best (albeit limited) knowledge I have about blacksmithing came from machinists, or someone they knew. It's how I was able to build my forge :)

This is awesome! Thanks for sharing!

To get rid of the oxides (scale) and prevent inclusions; the oxides are harder than the metal being forged (and not just because they are cooler either) and can seriously mess with my work. So the short answer is because I appreciate the technical aspect of it and not just the aesthetics lol

Sweet! See you there!

This is awesome! I really like the projects you've proposed, and I can't wait to try some of them! What is the tool next to the "S" scroll? I've never seen that one before...

I'm pretty interested in seeing how it turns out too!

Oh, okay! I'm pretty sure I can make something like that, no problems! Does the helper with the firebrick topper on it slide in and out independently of the one on the other side? It looks like you have one on each side, which can definitely be handy!

Thank you! Since the burner is your design, to hear you say it's well done means quite a lot! :) I'll make the aiming adjustments this weekend if I can get the time for sure. What does a helper look like? I've never heard of one before.

I 100% agree and will keep that in mind when I load the shelves. I'll try to make sure everything is oriented so that I have to come in from the side on the bottom two shelves. The top shelf I can reach just fine without really bending over (I'm short lol) so I think I'll be safe; however I'm very safety oriented, especially since I don't want to be shot down by the wife lol I actually came to the same conclusion today! I think I'm going to put up two angle irons, one across the top and one across the bottom to create a 'sliding door' effect. Either that or I'm going to make a swinging door with a kaowool-lined inside, I haven't quite decided :) I think the sliding door firebrick gives me more flexibility though, so that's my top choice for the moment. Thanks for the feedback guys!

It's been a LONG time coming, but I finally scraped together enough time to make my forge and the cart for it! Please ignore most of the Sharpie markings, this was a huge learning process for me lol. The last image is a link to a video of it running; it's not great quality but I thought it was still pretty cool :) I'll try to take a better video next time! Link to the video (the forum wouldn't let me post it directly) If there are any improvements you can see, I would love to hear feedback! :)

ThomasPowers is right, the size of the forge you want to make does depend very heavily on the size of the piece you plan on working with. If you plan on making small pieces, you don't want to run too large a forge, or you're just throwing money away in fuel. I am building my own burner for my forge, to answer your question, and I'm hoping that when I'm finished it'll do a touch more than simply boil water ;-)