cwm1949

Is that a Champion number 40 blower you have?

It says 89 on the side.

I hand another fire today and all went well. Second fire in row that worked as exoected. NOw I am able to pricie on the hot iron.

Thanks for everyones suggestions

Bill,
I see the source of your issues... You're missing the door on your ash dump. 75% of your air blast is going out the bottom of your forge.

Its not an optical illusion, and you have a sharp eye. The original door is missing. But I averted the loss of air with a lot less finess than you suggest. I have a a steel plate and cobbled together rig that I use to wedge between it and the floor to hold the plate against bottom of the down pipe. Your solution is better and I plan to follow your suggestion

Thanks

Today I was able to get a good fire that heated my metal in what seemed to me to be a quick time.

I think the change was that I used larger pieces of coal. I believe I over thought the "charcoal" part of what I had read. This week I decided to just build a fire as if I was trying to start a fire in a coal stove. Ok I was careful to keep a clear air path thru the center of the coal when starting the fire. But I used bigger pieces and it worked.

So now I know the forge is fully functional. Next I need to learn how to make something other than free form trivits. Let the fun continue.

Again thank for you comments and help.

Bill,
... It's a little hard to tell from the pictures, ...

Here are pictures of Grandfathers forge

I tried again today and got a fire but not much heat.

How big should my pieces of coal/charcoal be?

I have air flow as demonstrated by picture with a plastic bag flapping in the breeze generated by the hand crank blower.

Note I do have heat coming from the shaft that supports clinker breaker. I also have some sparks in the area below the forge.

Does anyone know of videos of a "good" blacksmith fire being started?

Also I have signed up for a week class in Aug. so I will be able to see how it is done.

Thanks for all comments on the forge and fire management.

Bill,
Have you been to a demo or club meeting and watched someone knowledgeable manage a coal fire? If not, I highly recommend it. I would also highly recommend having a similar person come to your place and run your forge for a while.

Thanks for you comment. Although I never "knew" my grandfather, I have grown up around barns he built and observed end irons, wrought iron mail box supports with a landscape profile. So your comment that it looks like he built a good forge conforms to what i observed of his barns etc.

No I have not had an opportunity to see someone, who actually knows what a forge is, use it. My wife and I are considering going to a school in western NC for late Aug. (ok she is not taking Blacksmithing class but is will to go along).

I will follow your suggestion and clean the the fire pit and send more accurate pictures.

Again thanks
to everyone for your comments

From what I can see from your photographs, your firepot looks fine. You should be able to raise the neutral spot in the fire to being level with the forge's table by adding coal until the center of the fire is level with the forge table. The height of the pile of coal and the amount of air will raise and lower the carbon and oxygen neutral spot of the fire.

Thanks for all your comments.

I think your comment may help me know what I am doing wrong. When I start the fire (with success) I have used a piece of coal to bridge thefire pot so the fre was farther above the clinker breaker than if the coal came all the eway down to it.. The pieces was fairly flat and had room around the edge where it joined the fire pot to allow air flow. All worked fairly well until that coal caught "bridge" fire, then the fire moved lower in the fire pot and I could only work ends of my metal.

You say "adding coal until the center ...." I have been adding coal to the top of the fire, should I be adding it to the bottom some how?

Again thanks for all our patience as I learn how to run a fire.

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

Let me know if your are every going to use the AA highway to visit Cincinnati and have time to stop and see my Grandfather's forge. I am less than 2 miles off the AA.

Thanks for your comments

The suggestion to clean my forge was I believe the key.

I also learned I had way to much coal in the fire the first time.

Today I tried again (after the I sifted the remnants of the last fire.) and clean all the forge.

It started well and I was able to heat metal ( a 3/8 steel rod) left from my Grandfather. ( I keep understanding stuff that we have been walking around for over 50 years).

I was able to form it and bend it double. Sadly I got it to hot and the bent part vaporized (I had tryed to see how thin I could make it before I bent it double.)

I also worked at putting a point on a 3/4 in bar.

I noticed what the fire looked like when I put air to it and it was making what I took to be good heat. So all and all a much better result.

Again thanks to all for your comments and suggestions

Now more questions

After I finished and decided to read some more, so I actually know what to do with the fire now that I can get it started, I wanted to turn off the fire.

I used my Grandfathers water sprinkler. It looks like a ladle but it has very small holes so the it sprinkles a VERY small amount of water which stops the heat. I then spread the fire. As I cleaned the fire basin I found the bricks hot (They were glowing) Is this normal? Do I need to do anything to protect them?

As I continued cleaning the fire pit and got to where I could see the top of the air inlet, I heard a small pop. I think that there must have been coal gas build up in the ash pit. Is this normal?

So all and all I am glad I found this site. I look forward to learning more for your all.

Again Thanks

I will try to look for a "clinker" and go again on sunday adter church.

My grandfather had a fire rake like you describe. (But with no twist in the handle). As I read posts I see that he really had a good set of tools, I just need to see if I can figure out how to use them

Thanks again

That is me a picture of my better side

First picture is me with low (read little) heat

Next is after I dug out the air pipe in bottom of hearth whne fire was out to convince myself air would flow

Then the last two are genberal pictures

Again thanks

I joined I forge iron today.

This is the same day I lite my first fire in a forge, my Grandfather build. He died in 1950, 1 year after I was born. My father never thought forge worked but I decided to see if I could get it to work.

I got the hand powered blower re connected to provide ait to the bottom of the forge. I am using coal left from 1950 (i think).

When I lit the fire I could turn the handle on the blower and see the change in the fire as air moved through it. 1 1/2 hours later I finely thought I had the fire so it would heat metal. I actually got a steel rod, the size of a pencil, red hot twice. And really enjoyed trying to form the 4 inch length I got this hot.

However about this time I was no longer able to blow air through the fire. So I ended up with a nice coal fire (if I wanted afire in a fireplace) but with not enough heat to heat metal past black hot.

So the two heats I got make me want more, but I must learn how to build a hot fire that will allow me to work metal.

I am glad to find this forum.

Thanks in advance for any comments