As I told the forum a while ago, my grandfather, who died in 1950, build a forge. As I was born in 1949, I did not get a chance to learn how the forge worked. In fact no one used it after his death, until this year when I decided to see if it is usable. I have had only 4 fires and read some about black smithing. So net net I know almost nothing.
My current problem is that I can get good heats on the ends of a piece of metal but when I try to heat the middle of a 3 foot piece I never seem to get much heat. My theory is that the forge's fire pot is to deep.
The diameter of my fire pot at grade is approx 24 inches and the depth is approx 5 inches to the bottom, where the air enters the fire.
The center of my fire always seems to be "below grade" so that I can only put the end of my metal into the hot part of the heat.
So my question is my fire pot to deep?
If not how do I get the hot part of the fire higher? Do I just build a bigger fire. I have ttried that and it just seems to decrease the air flow with the result of getting less heat.
If it is to deep how can I correct that problem?
Thanks in advance
The attached pictures are just to give you a context to answer this question