Woody

Ralph, glad to hear that Dawn is doing well. I will continue to pray for both of you. Woody

Hang in there Ralph, I am still praying for you and Dawn. Woody

Ed and Beverly, you are in my prayers, may God be with you always Woody

I have made several "Wall Hanger" swords from mild steel. If all you want is a decorative sword then mild steel will work fine. Making a sword out of mild steel will give you much needed practice in working a long piece of steel and keeping is straight. Then, when and if you ever decide to make the real thing, you will have your experiences to draw upon. Just remember that what you have made is for decoration purposes only but some of your less than enlightened friends my have the urge to pick it up and swing it and if someone is accidentally hit in the head with a dull mild steel sword, they are apt to be just as dead as if they had their personality split by a real razor sharp sword. That said, go have fun create, and learn. Woody

Andy: First put the guard back on the angle grinder, then toss the cut off wheel. When they get down that small they are prone to break and go flying in all directions. As Glenn has said before, decide what you can live without, right eye, left hand, assorted toes, now protect the rest. Woody

I have written instructions on using salt water and a 6 volt battery to etch steel, the pattern can be cut through scotch tape placed on the steel, email me woody@rushmore.com if you want the instructions Woody

Ralph: I will continue to keep you and Dawn in my prayers. May God Bless and keep you both. Woody

Ed: You and your wife are in my thoughts and prayers. If there is anything I can do, please let me know Woody

Coal my thoughts and prayers are with you and Karen, may God Bless you both. Woody

John: Welcome to the wonderful world of hot iron. There are many smiths in Texas who frequent this web site. There is also probably a blacksmith group in your area check the ABANA website to see where the closest group is. You will find this site and Anvilfire invaluable resources. Woody

Old time blacksmiths did not have the advantage or ordering Pocohontas #3 coal, they made due with what was at hand or used charcoal if coal was unavailable. Before I knew the difference I used "useless coal" from the mines near Gillette, WY quite successfully. I managed to make several damascus blades with it. I found that it worked better if you mixed a bit of Anthricite coal with it. Anthricite is available at many coal suppliers in 40 lb bags as stove coal. As for mixing it with propane for use in power plants, that is not quite right. My Son in Law is an Environmentalist for a Power Plant inTexas and although he works at a gas fired plant now, he used to work at the Tolk Generating Station near Mule Shoe, TX. This was a coal fired plant. The coal was ground to a powder and fed directly into the boiler under air pressue. As for the BTU value, that is the amount of energy that is available in a given amount of product, in this case the amount of energy that is available in a pound of coal. It is no indication of how hot a fire the material will produce. The heat of the fire is dependent of the fuel, but it is also more dependent on the amount of air supplied to the fire. Pocohontas #3 has 13,500 BTU per lb. The coal mentioned has 9,000 BTU per lb which is consistent with the material that comes out of the Powder River Basin in Wyoming With a sufficient air blast it is not only capable of taking steel to the proper forging temperature, it is capable of burinig steel to a crips. I am not sure, but if you check the BTU Value of charcoal, I think it is probable equal to or less than the BTU Value of this coal and like charcoal, you will probably have to use more of this coal that coal of a highrer BTU value. Woody

Monica: You are on my prayer list. Best wishes for a speedy recovery Woody

Junior and Cookie: I am pleased to hear that Carrie is doing well. May God's blessings be upon you and your family. Woody

Ralph: My prayers are with you and Dawn and your whole family. I also pray for your doctors that they may find a treatment that will purge the cancer from your body. You are a tower of strength my friend and you have shown all of us what courage really is. May the peace and blessings of the Holiday Season be with you and your family through the coming year. Woody

Before beginning to forge the cutting edge thin, give the blade a concave bend toward the cutting edge, then as you forge the cutting edge thinner and the metal stretches, the blade will straighten out. You will have to expiriemnt with how much bend to give the blade to start with. Woody

Jr. Glad to hear some good news for a change. I will keep you all in my prayers just the same Woody

J Wolfe: My sincerest condolances to you and your family. I will be praying for you all. Woody

Ralph: I will continue to pray for your complete recovery and also for Dawn and your family, I know this is very hard for them. Woody

Ralph, My prayers are with you and Dawn. May God heal you completely. Woody

my propane forge is thin sheet metal rolled into a tube and tack welded. It is lined with kowool and has soft firebrick covered with castable refactory for a floor. it works just fine. The steel shell is merely a means to hold the insulation. I am currently building a bigger one made from two old bbq sized propane tanks with the ends cut off. I then welded the two sections together to form a long tube. WARNING. I completely purged the propane tanks first, then filled them with water and thoroughly washed and rinsed them. Then I did not flame cut them, I used a sawsall wilth a 24 tooth blade to cut them. Flame cutting a closed container, even one that has been completely cleaned can result in disaster because the torch will blow unburned gas into the container making a potentially explosive atmosphere. Woody

Thomas I will remember your MIL in my prayers, may God grant you all peace. Woody

I ran the numbers on your forge chamber size, for that size chamber you will need a minimum of roughly 160,000 btu actually it comes out to 155,000 and change but 160,000 gives a very slight margin for error. Your current options are to either decrease the size of your forge chamber or add another burner. I would toss a fire brick in the bottom to take up some of the space and that may allow you to attain welding heat. You will have to crank the pressure on your propane way up, I run mine at 30 psi when welding. Also if you want a reducing atmosphere when welding toss in a chunk of charcoal, not a brickette, real wood charcoal, this will help burn the excess oxygen out of the atmosphere. Hope this helps you Woody

from the Anvilfire Guru Den Archives August 2001 EZ-Burner: Ricardo, That is an old Ron Reil plan hosted on his page. It has been built by thousands. That burner is what is called an "Atmospheric Burner" because is runs on atmospheric pressure - there is no blower. They are used on many commercial forges. They are very tricky to get everything balanced to run correctly. Any one burner will only work with one volume of forge. On commercial forges they add burners as the forge gets bigger. Make the forge twice as big and you need twice the number of burners. A single EZ-Burner will work on roughly a 1/3 of a cubic foot or about 10,000 cm3. I quote from the Ron Reil site. You will need at least 450 BTUs per cubic inch of forge chamber volume if your forge is going to be able to forge-weld. Some would argue for a figure as high as 540 BTUs per cubic inch. The "Reil Burner" will deliver about 135,000 BTUs at medium to higher gas pressures, and can be cranked up to almost 200,000 BTUs by raising the pressure to 20 psi or more. In the lower pressure range of from 1-6 psi, where I do most of my work, it will produce about 60,000 BTUs, or even a little less. Use the middle figure in any design calculations. Shoot for a burner to volume ratio of 1:300 or less. Some smiths who are very knowledgeable would say a more conservative ratio of 1:250 would be safer and insure that your forge will be able to weld. To calculate how many 3/4" burners you will need just divide the total chamber volume of your forge, in cubic inches, by 250 or 300, and then round up. If you come out to a burner requirement of 2-1/3 burners, then you will need 3 burners for your planned forge volume. Always plan conservatively or you may end up with a forge that is too cold to forge-weld. The above information is assuming that you will build a well insulated forge, having at least 2" of Kaowool lining coated with ITC-100, not Satinite, on the interior surface of the chamber. A 3" lining of Kaowool would be even better, and would probably pay for itself in fuel savings over the long run. If you elect to use a rammable or pourable refractory, or bricks, you will have to address the lower insulation values associated with these materials. One option is a composite design, a pourable refractory shell for durability, inside a Kaowool shell for insulation value. These are more difficult to build but are long lasting and can work very well. - guru - Wednesday, 08/08/01 03:33:09 GMT

Junior and Cookie: your daughter and both of you will be in my thoughts and prayers. May God bless you all. Woody

I have a 11 1/2" dia disk brake roter that has a raised bolt surface in the center that is exactly 7 inches in dia. Go to the junk yard or brake shop, find the appropriate roter. Take it home, heat your steel and bend it around the top portion. Woody