VainEnd84

I don’t know why, probably because I’m over exhausted, but his made me picture a tall skinny pear playing a small pan flute ... I think I need to go to bed.

As someone who practices Historical European Martial Arts, I can really appreciate the quality and design of a beautifully crafted blade such as this, it’s proportions look darn near perfect!

Reducing viscosity does not increase the depth that oil penetrates, it reduces the amount of time needed for oil to penetrate but not how far into the wood it can go. Capillary action only does so much, there comes a point when hydrostatic pressure balances out with the pressure of the small amounts of air and water moisture that remain in the wool, a solvent can not counter this.

Inwould like to add something to this. Adding turpentine or any other thinning agent to BLO and the like actually does not make it penetrate the wood better, that is a myth. In terms of the chemistry, turpentine only makes BLO less viscos, is moves the molecules farther apart, it does not and can not shrink the size of the molecules. It is the size of the molecules that determines how deeply the oil can penetrate into the wood, the only ways that I know of to increase penetration is to allow for longer soak time, stick the wood in a tub of oil and let it sit, or to put it in a vacuum chamber and draw the air out of the wood, then releasing the vacuum and causing the oil to be pulled in. Hope this helps dispel any myths about turpentine making oil penetrate deeper/better.

@Canlib all of your questions have been answered in the Forges 101 pinned thread, I suggest and others will too, grabbing a drink or three and some snacks and reading through that thread. Good luck and hammer on!

Check out pottery supply house psh.ca I believe, they are Canadian and they sell ceramic blanket by the foot

A local blacksmith had purchased one of these "forges steel" ones, they also had another design that was "cast steel" and came in three weights 30, 60, and 120 lbs I believe. This one was OK, the hardie hole and "pritchel" hole were drilled only part way through, the face was decently hard, but it only had about 60% rebound. The other cast steel ones were better, with the hardier and pritchel running through, and they had about 75% rebound. They were no where near the quality of better manufacturers, and for the price the NC Anvils are still a better deal in my opinion but they are not bad and actually do seem to be made from steel rather than cast iron. Hope this helps! A note on the price, I've notice in Western Canada that anything under $6 a lb is a deal now, many anvils are going north of $8 a lb. Mostly because of the "art" market, it makes me grumble with disappointment when ever I see one.

Well, yeah I guess they would be tangs ... now I feel kind of silly

I will be bending the arms (not sure if that is the correct term) The blade is about 8" long and each arm is 5 1/2 inches.

This is my first ever bladed tool, have never mad a knife or anything meant to hold an edge but I have need of a draw knife so I figured why not just make one! It is forged from a portion of leafspring off of a ford raptor. Not knowing exactly what type of steel it was I cut a small piece and heated it to forging temperature a few times giving it a few hits with a hammer each time, then normalized x3, then heated until non magnetic (my high temp thermocouple hasn't arrived yet) and quenched in mineral oil. It hardened to the point I could snap it in a vice with a very light tap from a hammer and it showed a very very fine grain. This all seemed to point to it being reasonably quality carbon steel and that my heat treating process was sound, on to forging! it is about 1/4" thick along the spine, and I have hand hammered the bevel to a relatively consistent point. I did three normalizing cycles and this is the product so far.

@edennis I think Wayne is talking about the space between the internal insulation and the fire brick door, it does look like there is one which would cause a pocket to heat rapidly and cause the top bracket and shell to heat up that much

Do Canadian suppliers of materials for building forges check out front step forge (located in Edmonton Alberta) they have a website and the owner sells some of the materials needed to make forges, he also sells forges, pottery supply house is a solid choise for the ceramic wool blanket.

I tried using a 1/2" pipe cross to build a "T" burner and found that it could not be tuned properly, you simply can't get enough air, I suspect if you machined out the inlets so their internal diameter is the same as a 3/4" pipe T that that would solve the issue but that requires access to a lathe. I also tried using a 3/4" pipe cross and a reducing bushing so I could go from 3/4" to 1/2" but it creates a great deal of turbulence and an unstable flame. I suspect if you could get a properly machined reducer with a smooth taper this issue would be solved but that would require some very good machining. If there were reducing pipe crosses on the market that too would solve the issue but I have not been able to find any anywhere. I contacted a machining shop near me who could manufacture the part but the cost was about $300 and for that I would rather just buy an already machined and finished burner.

I certainly am planning on making an internal wall. I have some soft fire brick, the 1" kiln shelf, and some left over ceramic blanket and refractory, what would you suggest I use for the internal wall?

I do have a question, should I use fire brick to close the back or would kiln shelf work? I have a bit of 1" kiln shelf that came with the thinner stuff I'm going to be using for to floor (I got it on kijiji as a lot)