WayneCoeArtistBlacksmith

see this attachment: This how I suggest building a gas forge. Call or e-mail me if you have any questions. KD Gas Forge Tutorial.pdf

Join your local forge of the Alabama Forge Council and come to the Conference the first weekend in September after Labor Day http://www.alaforge.org/calendar.html. See you there, come by my tail gate area and visit.

I have noticed that Brian forges hardies with a tapered shank and assume that that is so that the tool will fit almost any anvil. I have had several anvils with 1" and 1 1/4 hardy holes. Whenever I have one that is not 1" I make a shim by grinding 1" square tubing down to where I can drive it in, then if necessary use the O/A and silver solder it in.

Fred Moore from Mountian Aire, New Mexico was bringing in sand cast "holy swege blocks" from Mexico and selling them at Quad State for a few years. Year before last (2010) he told me that he wouldn't be bringing any more. These weighed about 80# and he sold them for about $125.00. Ruff casting but they do the job. I sure am glad that I got mine. I'm sure that David can give you good info on how well to expect them to sell. Get about a dozen made up and bring them to Quad State and see what happens. I bet you won't be taking any home.

I would put the blanket then over cast with insolating castable (Kast-0-Lite) covering all blanket, then Paint on Plistix. I can supply all of these products. Just e-mail me or call.

Did you use both the Plistix and ITC 100? Let me know how you used the products and did you notice anything to comment on? After you respond I will post further.

Well, you are a little over 100 miles from me. Call and plan to come over for a visit. We can look at equipment and play in the shop. Look into the http://www.appalachiablacksmiths.com and their regional forge at Fiddler's Grove, Lebanon, TN, hosted by Fiddler's Grove, contact Daniel Pelletier, (615) 330-0901

I always want the edges on both sides of the anvil to match. I place a straight edge on the face about 3/8" back on the horn end and 0" about 3" from the heel (or on your anvil to about the front of the hardy hole) and draw a line. I then grind to the line to radius the edges to match. You will use near side and far side edges so need both edges to match. The tapered radius allows you to have varied radii as suits the present project.

Definately coat either hard or soft brick with Plistix. You will be amazed at the difference. I suggest that you build the forge and use it, timing the length of time to get to forging temp. Then paint it with Plixtix or Metrikote and time it again. I suspect that you will see that with the Plistix it will take about half the time. Now, what does that mean? You will work twice as fast, use half as much gas,,,,,and work twice as hard.

I am impressed! Nize! You don't often see this kind of finish,

I had a stand that was to low. I had some channel iron that when welded onto the legs brought it right up to "just right". The wood would work but metal with less flex would be better. I use a good adhesive chalk to "glue" the anvil down and make a ridged attachment to dampen the ring. For my traveling anvil I chalked the bottom of the anvil but put a piece of saran wrap then put it on the stand. Now it has the solid attachment but when moving it to a demonstration I can move the anvil and stand seporately. The anvil is 100# and the stand is 85#.

I like the face to be at wrist hight. You can stand up close with that design and with wrist hi you will stand up straight and not have the back ache in the evening. I usually put the horn over the 3rd leg. I weld loops around the stand for hanging hammers.

Check out the NWG plans from www.USAKnifemaker.com ($25.00 plus shipping) or my DVD at www.WayneCoeArtistBlacksmith.com (plus shipping for out of the US) and build your own. Looks like you could get your wheels from www.downlandengineeringservices.com. You could also download the free EERF (that is FREE spelled backwards) plans from www.wilmontgrinders.com.

The Alex Bealer Blacksmith Association of Georgia (www.alexbealer.org) is in and around the Atlanta area. They meet the 3rd weekend of each month at a different shop each month. Sometimes closer to you sometimes a little further away. Join and then you have library privledges and can check out books. They have an extensive library. I will see you at the August meeting. The third weekend in May will be the SBA conference in Madison, Georgia. It is only about 30 miles from you to there and I'll plan to visit with you there. Let me know if I can help you otherwise.

I'm afraid that Kevin misunderstood my recommendation. "I would suggest that you use one inch of blanket and then use a castable refractory about 1/2 inch thick and then paint plistix over that." I ment, to cast over the Inswool, or other blanket, with a castable refractory (Kast-0-Lite, or other castable refractory), then after that has cured paint over it with Plistix. Plistix and ITC 100 are both Infrared Reflective procucts. Plistix is $10.00 a pint and ITC 100 is about $40.00. Painting the ITC 100 over the Plistix would be redundant. I guess that if you were going to use ITC 100 without the Castable Refractory step the cheaper Plistix did soak into the blannket and form a barrier so that the more expensive ITC stayed on the serface. A second application of Plistix would have done the same thing, I think. I'm sorry if I was not clear and, hopefully. this will be clearer.

Alan and Tal Harris will be demonstrating at the AFC conference in Alabama in September. Probably further from PA than New York.

Thanks Sweany, It makes a lot more sense now. And thanks Tom. It looks like you used compressed air, I wonder about using a blower and running the air intake (between the blower and the gas inlet) by the door and is the added heating due to the pre-heat or just the added air

Wow! Can you say hammer control?

Eventually you will get both. For now just figure out which you need most now. I use both my power hammer (Big Blu 155 Max) and my Inline Treadle Hammer often. Mostly I use my 4# Blu Hand Hammer.

Thanks doc,,,,wouldn't you know, BabelFish doesn't have a translator for Polish to English. I'll have to try something else.

Darryll Nelson makes a bull dog by folding 1" X 1/4" bar stock. Just round up the nose a little and it is a pig. I made a knife with the bull dog as the handle (it is a sculpture of my shop dog Moe). After forging the pig head leave some stock for the handle then draw down the shank and spread the area for the spatula blade. Here is a picture of the Moe knife. Actually there are two folds one at the ears and one below the chin. Look at this thread: Animal heads with Darryl Nelson here on IFI It is in the General Discussion Forum and was started by Gerald Boggs. I didn't see an example of the dog's head but there is some good information and good pictures there. Do a Google search for Daryll Nelson and you will get lots of hits some YouTube videos. BTW, this knife won the Best Rail Road Spike Knife contest at the Batson Bladesmith Symposium this year.

As Ironwolf said, what language is it in. I can't get Babelfish to translate it if I don't know what to translate from. Pictures look interesting, also pictures on the tutorial. I thought that I would just look at your profile, find out where you are from and get the language that way. I don't think that the language is Jersieze.

They are two different tools for two different purposes. The treadle hammer will be great for chaseing, punching, using the Smithin' Magician. It is not very usefull for forging. You shouldn't use a pair of pliers for a hammer or a screw driver for a pry bar.

I didn't know that you had to be "approved". I've been going to Quad for about 10 years now. Stop and visit. I will have the big horse trailer with a 16 X 20 foot canopy and lots of stuff to sell. You can visit without buying anything. I will also have a Knife Dogs banner on one of my tables.

Castable refractories are not all that expensive, especially when you can buy it in 6# bags and have no waste. You will have spent way more and have an inferior product by the time you buy the bag of vermiculite, Portland cement and lime.