This evaluation is for the Majestic Forge 3-burner Farrier Deluxe forge sold on their website. link removed
So first a disclaimer. I am by no means an expert. Prior to this propane forge the only other gas forges I've used are the NCTools 1(Whisper Baby) and 3-burner(Whisper Daddy #2) forges and a coal forge, all of which were used at my mentors shop.
My reasons for getting the propane forge were simple. 1) The area I live in currently isn't conducive to a coal forge. 2) Portability to be able to take to shows/fairs and such.
The web purchasing system worked great, the shipping notifications and shipping time were exemplary. The packaging could have used a little more tape for strength as the bottom had come undone but everything was intact and undamaged.
I didn't immediately assemble the forge as I wanted to do it at my mentors shop so I could get his opinion and advice on things I should watch for or be careful about or adjust based on his experience and seeing it through the assembly process.
The Assembly:
1. The 3 "stacks" which the burners assemblies fire into didn't align to the same height when inserted into the top of the forge. The top flanges were pre-attached and when laid side by side they all seemed to be the same length/height. Upon inspection of the seating for the stacks we noted the weld beads that were used as stops were not uniform in placement. Luckily there is a stop-screw on each seating so we were able to align them manually that way with a level.
2. After getting the stacks aligned we moved to the main burner assembly which comes pre-assembled. The far left burner tip was canted inward about 5 degrees compared to the other assemblies. It looks like the nipple pipe between the middle and left burner assembly was either a little long or the assembly wasn't screwed on far enough. Either way, it results in the jet coming from the assembly not projecting straight down the stack. While 5 degrees may not seem like much, it is very noticeable once the forge is lit. The left burner needs to be opened up more than the middle and right burner to have even flame inside, about a third of a turn total. This results in more fuel being consumed unnecessarily to even out the heating.
3. The front door didn't close evenly, roughly a 16th of an inch gap at the top left corner. More on this later.
The Firing:
The forge is supposed to run for approx 15 minutes at 5psi to evaporate any humidity/moisture within the forge prior to each use. This was when we first noticed how much the slight cant in the left burner differentiated in feed to flame ratio. After the 15 minute warm-up we kicked it up to 10 psi feed and alternated from 10-15 psi feed to see how the heating went with a couple of different sizes of metal.
The Forging:
The heaviest piece we used was a 1 1/2 inch tooled steel octagon bar previously used as a jackhammer moil point for breaking concrete. At 12.5 psi the forge was able to get this piece to a high orange/low yellow point, which we didn't consider bad for that heavy of a piece. The forge was able to run for about 3 1/2 hours before the condensation issue on the tank became a problem. We took a lunch break and after about an hour were able to run the forge for another 2 hours before the tank began to freeze up again. This entire process used approx. half of the 20lb propane tank attached to it.
During the entire firing and forging process we noticed the small gap at the top left of the front door opened quite a bit, probably to about 3/16th of an inch. When the forge cooled it did close up again to about the same 16th of an inch as before, but this gap still creates heat loss. After the forge cooled down enough and we were able to look at the door more closely is looked like the bottom lip of the left hand side wasn't but as cleanly and had a slight bulge which prevented the top from closing completely. Attempts to file the edge didn't help the closure and it appears the only solution is to break the welds on the inside of the door holding the firebrick in place and reshape the edge of it before reattaching the bar holding the firebrick in the door.
Propane usage:
Typically I only use 2 burners at about 12.5-15 psi and at this rate I can get roughly 10 hours out of a 20lb propane tank. With all 3 burners going at 12.5-15 psi that time drops to about 5 hours of forge time.
Cons: The main issue I have is with the side openings. While they're great for straight bar work the opening is literally about the size of your palm. Tongs, thin leaves and small hooks and such aren't a problem at all, but larger items like cutting springs to heat and straighten out will require the front door to be open and that could lead to a lot of lost heat. The front door is held on with a hinge on the bottom, and 2 pins at the top corners of the door. Any suggestions on making another way of opening and closing the door to help hold the heat in would be appreciated as once the door is unpinned, the top corners both begin to warp out as the heat rises.
All in all, for the price, it's a pretty good little forge and deal. I'll be contacting the vendor to see if anything can be done about the burner assembly issue and will keep this updated with information concerning the forge and the customer service.
