stockmaker

Kozzy, I met a man a couple months ago who has 3 or 4 of these things, and he loves to talk about them. He belongs to a club and goes on runs. He lives near Touchet Wa. not too far from you. I tried to buy his grandfathers anvil while there, that went over like a lead balloon. I have his name, how do I discreetly get it to you?

Hi Ethan. I am a newbie like you and have done some research on forced air forges, but like I said I am just a newbie on this subject. I see the kit you are thinking about purchasing on the lower half of the web page , and it looks fine to me. But as stated above we do not know the cubic volume of the forge you are planning. The fan you show us is not going to work, 100 cfm is too small for even the smallest forge, I think 180 cfm would be the minimum, and a squirrel cage fan is not preferred for forge blowers as they cannot handle varying back pressures. And of course you need to think about how you are going to get the output of the fan into a round pipe! You want to be looking for a paddle fan. I have not been able to find good data on sizing forced air fans for forges except to look on web pages from people selling them for that purpose. Good paddle fans are not cheap! I personally do not know why a good hair dryer would not work for a while, but like I said I have only read about this subject so far.

I have been eagerly awaiting this post as I have hopes of making a NARB this winter. I have some questions, I know this is a sneak preview so please use these questions as primer for your How-To post to come out. I was surprised to see a twin burner setup. Are these 1/2" T Burners? I assume you are estimating the same forge size capacity per burner as a round burner? Is a square forge design more appropriate for a ribbon burner? As I recall you used 19 outlets in the manifold, what are the dimensions of the steel tubing manifold? Thread protectors, This is not a question, I just have not come up with any yet. Is it quiet? This is more related to the dragons breath you are getting. And I owe you a thank you for taking this on, Thank You.

I did not know I could glue it together with rigidizer, that's a pearl. I was going to call someone in a Pottery Supply house and ask them. Alan, thanks for calculating how big I could make something with this stuff, I have been thinking about the arch concept, I have a band saw that once set up correctly could cut those blocks into the shapes I need, Although all I need is about a 350 cubic inch forge.

Iron Dwarf and Frosty, thanks for the reply. I will use it with no reservations!

I would like some advice on how I should proceed with this anvil that I just acquired this week. It is special to me for two reasons. 1. It was given to me by relatives, they hauled it out of my late uncle's basement where it sat for decades. 2. It is my only anvil other than a 86lb Fisher that was badly abused at some point in its life. The anvil is a 238lb Peter Wright. As you can see from the photo's it was broken in two at the waist. It was welded at the break with 1" pin's installed internally, I can see them in the forging holes front and rear. The weld is cracked 3/4 around the waist. I am going to guess the repair to the wrought iron was done more than fifty years ago with an Ox/Ac welder. Ring is muted, or missing altogether. There is some ring at the front 3" and the rear 3" of the face. Rebound is 90% at the front and rear of the face, and all over the place in the middle going from 90% to 70% depending where the ball is dropped. Rebound at the shelf and the horn is around 50%. The face is fairly flat with only a 1/16" or less sag in the middle, there is a slight crown at the rear of the face in the hardy hole area. I used it yesterday for the first time making a pull handle for a shutter and loved it, but I am not sure how to proceed? Should I keep looking for an anvil, should I try to get it repaired again, and would that do any good, or should I not even be using it?

I usually do not buy things on impulse, but today I bought a case of Kaowool board for $50 off a Craigslist. The case has 128 pieces of 18" X 3" X 1.5" thick boards in it. I am planning to build a new forge this winter using blanket, not board, and 2" not 1.5", and kind of round in shape, so now I am wondering what could I do with it. Any suggestions?

Thanks for posting. Forging a draw knife is on my list of things to-do, if possible keep the progress pictures coming. The transition between handles and blade is nice, have you done many of these?

I was so excited when I bought my first number set, I now have three in different sizes. I used them to stamp a serial number in an expensive gunstock I just completed for a customer. Most old gunstocks have the gun's serial number stamped in them. This one had the numbers under the trigger guard tang, fortunately out of sight. My goal was to make a stock that could not be identified as a replacement. I carefully aligned and stamped the five digits into the wood, the space is narrow so alignment top to bottom was not a problem, as I finished the fifth and final number I pulled the punch back to see the number had been put in upside down. And there was nothing I could do to fix it. I now double check, triple check and check again. This is a good topic as alignment of letters and number punch's has been hard for me. I am going to do a simple 1/2" and 3/8" stamp today in metal and want it to look good.

Thanks for the help guys. I have never touched, or seen the stuff so I had no idea.

I will soon be building a forge and have a question that has been bugging me for weeks.... Can Kiln Shelf be cut? The stuff I have found on line comes in square shapes, or is rather large for a forge. How do you get it to the dimensions you need?

I put a micrometer on the one pictured, it is 1/32" under 3/4", the bench holes are 3/4".

Let me add some fat to this fire. First of all, Hello Everyone, this is my first post. I am a novice blacksmith, but a long time woodworker. I have made and studies woodworking benches. As you know woodworking benches use hold fast's to hold stock. The hold fast's are the same as those used on an anvil, mine are all 3/4" round stock. There is a rule for using hold fasts in bench tops, that being the top can not be thicker than 4" for the hold fast to work reliably. If it is you have to back bore the hole from the underside of the bench top. I keep mine at 3.5" which allows them to work fine. Will52100, you might want to set up a test jig out of wood using your new hold fast, the 5" thickness of your pritchel hole may be the problem.