Caleb Steckmann

I took some of the advice you guys gave me and fired up the old brake drum forge again today, and everything just seemed to work I was able to get something pounded out with no problems, Thanks guys. 

Thanks for all the advice guys, I will keep trying I have been doing a combo of the charcoal and anthracite mainly cause I have 40 lbs of it. Sounds like at minimum my stack isnt high enough because it's definitely not 5 inches over the lip of my drum, so maybe that was my problem. 

Hey all, 

So I know this has been asked before, but I am new to the world of forging and am on a limited budget so I built a brake drum forge, with a 1.5 inch flange and pipe welded onto the bottom, with the tee fitting to allow for an ash dump and an air supply (two speed hair dryer). I initially made the mistake of using anthracite coal, so I switched to lump charcoal, because I cant find bituminous. I am able to get the forge hot enough to bring my rail road spike up to a nice glowing red, but after the first heat it's a constant battle to get the spike back up to a good temp as well as getting a uniform even temp on the spike. Not sure what I am doing wrong, because I know it gets hot enough, I melted one of my spikes in half. I have spent almost 50 hrs trying to make a single knife, so I am getting discouraged. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.