Ajbforging

It was rather disappointing because I used a rather large amount of plaster and it coated a pretty penny.

Will do! Thank you for the help and direction!

The fire pot is only about 1" deep, 6" by 6". The hole is maybe 1/2 to 3/4 I'm diameter.

The ball of glam has come up from the pot and I piled on a large mound of coal to insulate and hopefully expand the heat. I think my fatal flaw was my fire pot design and the way I supplied it air. I will probably get more metal and weld up a larger firepot to forge in. Is there a way to make a large firepot into a sideblast of sorts? My orginal design had my air funneling from the side of the fire and that really seemed to create a good fire. (Also trying to get away from my air supply hole getting clogged by dust, small coal or a clinker.) By the way, the idea behind a solid fuel forge finally dawned on me. I think the only reason my orginal design worked was because it was in a deepish bowl shape, giving me a crude fire pot. Now it seems really simple to make a forge with the idea of a "hole in the ground with a air supply" P.S. you guys are awesome. I'm taking so much info in, makes all my previous theories crumble

I was using four pieces of expanded metal bolted together to keep coal and clinkers from falling down into my pipe, but I do get what you mean by the T shape. The only reason I didn't go with the T was because I had already welded it down at work. (I'm a welder by trade.) The expanded metal never held up though. I'll try a domed cap to replace my expanded metal grate. Another thought I had was, what if I lined the brick with a sort of refractory fire clay mixture? Might that fix my heating issue?

Proven design being something along the lines of a clay forge or brake drum?

That's exactly what I've been working on, is 3/8 round stock. If I can get my heat up there I have no issues forging out knives. I will post the photos I have of my second build, but they aren't pretty.

So, I've gone through a few different designs, trying to build an efficient coal forge. I started out using a grill lid and putting a mixture of sand and plaster of Paris in it to form the bowl where my fire would be held, with a "airtight" tunnel coming from the side of the lid where I bolted the centrifuge fan I used for my air supply. This design brought me up to forge welding temperature but the "refractory" decayed. I demolished the bowl and decided to go with a firepot made of 1/4 stainless steel surrounded by patio brick. This design was a few steps back and I can't bring my heat up high enough to forge weld and begin folding metal. My question now is, is there a surefire design that can give me the heat efficiency? I am having a hard time believing a brake drum forge would give me ample amount of heat to hear up the metal to forge welding temperature. I eventually would like to attempt to make demascus steel. Which is why I stress forge welding.