Binesman

After reading your post when I had a little more time. I see your primary issues is that you are attempting to make knives for Christmas presents. As it is apparent from your Forge build you have never forged a knife. I would highly recommend against doing this to try and make a present. Your cheapest and best route to accomplish what you were attempting to do. To go to your local metal distributor purchase 1/8 inch thick by 2 inch wide 304 stainless steel it should only run you about $5 a foot. Use that to fabricate knives for Christmas. 304 cannot be hardened so you don't need to worry about heat treating it. In its base form it is hard enough to hold a decent Edge at least far harder then any weldable steel you're going to get from a big box store. As for the forge probably best to throw it out read forges 101 and burners 101 and start from scratch.

First off there should be a blck turn knob on the handle of that weed burner....that is your regulator. Second off it can be made to work but not well or effecient and it will cost you a lot more than fixing it. I will give you some recomendations on thatblater when i have more time.

or just wait till it's raining and work the blanket outside...of course you should always be working with ceramic blanket outside imo.

Yeah im guilty of this and it may be clouding my opinion. Just whatever tou do buy or build please make sure it is ridgidized.

okay fish here we go. This will be long and drawn out. Please understand that a lot of what I'm telling you I have learned from practical experience and observation. Frosty/Wayne/Mikey all have forgotten more about this material than I will probably ever know. So if one of them pops in and says something contradicting me LISTEN TO THEM. Also i'm not a very sciency guy so some of this may be explained very simple (it is not done as any form of insult to you. the problem is me not you) Lets start with each piece of the forge. ceramic fiber blanket/board.....these prevent heat from escaping. they don't store heat or anything else they just stop it from running away. Blanket MUST!!!!!!!! be ridgidized I can not stress this enough. I have never used board. I have been told by the furnace repair shop I purchase my blanket from (they have never used board either and thus this info is 3rd hand) that board presents just as much threat if it should be punctured/scraped and that it too should be ridgidized. I can not confirm that information however if I where using it I would error on the side of caution and ridgidize it as well. If flux touch's blanket/board it pretty much pulls a wicked witch and melts in seconds. refractory....(personaly I use kastolite) This traps the heat holds it inside and reflects it back in to the forge. It also forms a nice protective layer over the blanket/board giving you safety beyond the ridgidizer. Flux will eventualy tear up refractory (some more then others kastolite stands up to it fairly well) also giving your blanket/board protection from flux. It is more thermal mass meaning it will hold the heat better allowing you to reach temperature and turn down the gas. kiln wash....there's lots of different ones and lots of different reasons to use one. they can make the forge heat faster/hotter/hold temp better/protection, that list can go on and on. i'm going to talk to you about 2 ITC 100 (this is what is used on any production forge I've seen with a kiln wash). ITC heats up FAST it will get your forge to temp in probably 1/2 the time as a forge without it. It will let the forge get hotter I don't know how much so but if I where to guestimate i'd say 300F or so. It does not provide any further protection in fact it seems to scrape off VERY easily and in my experience when flux hits it you can kiss it goodbye. The next wash is Matrikote (this is what I use and I have not seen it used on any production forge). Your forge will actualy heat slower (you have added thermal mass) the amount isn't that much when going up to the 2k range it takes me about a minute longer in a matrikote coated forge. The forge will get hotter (performs just as well as ITC in this category). It is more thermal mass meaning it will hold the heat better allowing you to reach temperature and turn down the gas. It is a hard face (kind of like concrete) it doesn't come off very easy and it holds up to flux better than refractory. So here's my "layers" of a forge. irrigation pipe (shell), 2 layers of 1" blanket each ridgidized (2 layers for safety and ease of changeout if something manages to get far enough down to damage blanket). This is what stops the heat from escaping. Then 1/2" layer of kastolite 30 refractory This is what actualy holds the heat and transfers it to the material i'm working. then a kilnwash of matrikote90ac see about for what this does. The end result is that whatever PSI I need to get the forge to the desired temp I can pretty much 1/2 once I reach temp (I have seen no production forge that will allow this) The big benefit to this beyond saving money in fuel is it makes allowing material to soak MUCH easier. this is a HUGE benefit when making blades. Also when i'm forge welding I have both a kilnwash and a refractory hardface to protect my blanket. I have never had to replace a blanket yet. Matrikote is pretty easy to recoat mix with water and paint it on that's it. The few times my refractory has been damaged it has not been from flux it was from dropping material. kastolite is just as easy to recoat mix with water and trowel on. In the end for the things you want. You NEED a refractory hardface and I would highly recommend a matrikote kiln wash. Neither of these things will be in any production forge (maybe some of the industrial or VERY high end consumer but nothing your spending <500 on). I understand the hesitance and the issue of time. I will say when I build a forge the majority of the "time consuming" is building the burner and getting it dialed in. What I would recommend then is build the forge body. Wayne Coe sells all the mats you need other then a shell. you can get a piece of irrigation pipe localy (every city has someplace that sells irrigation pipe) for like 20 the blanket/kastolite/matrikote will be <100 from wayne and that should give you leftovers. That leaves you a 400 budget for a burner and a regulator/hose. pickup a TREX they are very nice spend 1/2 a day building the body and have a forge that will work for what you want be efficient and LAST.

Fish the more i read the more i have to say you realy need to build your own forge. Im still working atm but ill be off and home in anhour or so and will use the com instead of phone to give you the reasons. 8n the mean time you only need a single burner my 1' tube forge 10" OD 6" ID is only a single 3/4" burner

First i would recomend reading up on the forge 101 pin. Second i would recomend googling waynecoe artist blacksmith and reading the forge build plans on his site. What im getting at is you can build a much better forge for what you want a lot cheaper. As for what length you want it realy depends on how the forge is built and how well it holds heat. My forge is 1 foot long and by sealing most of the front and back and carefully passing the blade through and allowing soaks as needed i was able to heat and quench a 26" blade (i could probably push it up to 36ish but 26 is the largest blade i have made)

Frosty a question. I thought itc was meant to reradiate and get the forge hotter faster and keep it that way. Good to know that is not the purpose of it (although it does seem to do that) you said it is designed to protect against flux. I have use itc on 3 different forges now and on each of them flux aeems to pretty much destroy the itc. Not as bad as it will ceramic blanket but not far off. Am i applying it wrong/over using flux/both? Or is this what you where talking about where we dont get it to its proper vetrification point? I only ask because honestly feom what ive seen with testing if you want the forgw hot and thats your only concern itc100 is the way to go. But if you care about anything other then temperature matrikote will get close for temp but has the protection aspect. (it seems like this is backwards from what your stating as "intended" purpose)

Charles. Please dont misunderstand. I was not in any way defending piddler or saying his ban was unwarranted. I was merely saying okay then its kinda like a shoulder shrug and "meh" just easier to type

Reducing=more propane than oxygen. Some solutions Use a larger reducer so more air is drawn in Drill air intake holes Use a smaller oriface hole These are just generic options as i havent personaly built a burner like the one you are using.

Ah well okay then.

Pretty much what frosty said. We need to know the dimensions to give advixe on burner size. His t burner is the easiest to make. The one thing i would suggest is to rotate both t's by 90 degrees so that the air intakes dont line up and they arwnt "fighting" each other for the same airspace

Frosty. Data is coming from observation only running forges side by side and seeing what they could handle. The pure science of it isnt my thing im a tinkerer not engineer (that is not meant in anyway sarcastic just the best way i can think of describing the scenerio) i apologise when stating percents i can see where it could be thought that it is coming from data sheets when it is comimg from watching the differance of kastolite plain/matrikote coated/itc coated. Itc seems to heat the quickest by observation while matrikote does not heat as well it does make a significant difference over bare kastolite by obsevation. Also itc gets beet up much quicker and doesnt hold up to flux realy at all by observation. While matrikote i tend to only reaply after im clumsy and whack the wall even with the use of heavy flux. Reflective may also be the wrong term again not much on the science of it just the practicality of it. These statements are all obsevations. Since joining these forums ive built about 3 dozen forges and ran multiple differnt versions side by side to see how i felt they handled. (turns out i think i like making the forges more then hitting the metal) i also have a severe i want it to be perfect complex and since i dont know the science i just slap it together and compare. If your science(again no sarcasim intended i understand you have a far greater knowledge of the material than i do) points to something different than my observations please tell me and why (so i can try to learn some of the science) and i will recompare that aspect to see if my observation is wrong or if it is correct and there is another variable at work.

Problem being this is the second video ive seen from you and just like the first one extremely dangerous practices are shown as "tutorials" along with general disregard for ppe. If both of these videos where produced prior to your time on this forum and you are now embracing and instructimg on proper safety. Then i sincerely apologize and thankyou for taking the time to post instructional videos and would appreciate a link to your current work. Please understand my criticism is meant only to drive home the point that if you are going to "instruct" than 100% of your actions need to reflect safety to ensure that anyone who sees your video does not harm themselves from information you passed on.

That is the correct order. It is also recomended 2 layers of 1" kaowool instead of 1 layer of 2" each ridgidized seperately for grwater safety and ease of repair (not sure wich route you where intending). As of recent discussions on these forums im going to be switching over to superwool over ceramic fiber for the potential of greater safety( idlf you have not yet purchases your blanket i would recomend looking in to this. If you have already i dont think its a huge difference as long as you remember ppe and propsr precautions). To matrikote vs itc. Regardless of manufacturers statements matrikote can be applied over castable as a kiln wash. Many of the members of this forum do so. It does not provide 100% the heat rebound of itc. I would put it in the 85 to 90% range for reflective comparatively. However it holds up to flux and direct flame substantialy better along with creating yet another hardface/safety barrier to your blanket.

Mikey is the guy to talk to for burners so i wont say a word there. The one piece of advice i would give is to go with matrikote as a kiln wash unstead of itc100.

How about learn safety and follow basics of safety first.

Blanket is 4.50 a square foot from wayne thats about as low as youre going to get without buying a full roll. As for the burner if youbwant it cheap build it yourself. A T burner costs about 20 to buy the parts and if you talk to frosty and read his directions youll be able to get it going without buying any more parts. What will cost you is the hose/regulator. You can get a braided steel hose with a 0-30psi regulator for about 30 on amazon.

You seem competent with tools and are probably better than i am at producing items. However you should not be making any instructional videos until you can figure out and follow the basics of safety. This is the second video i have seen from you where the lack of safety gear and/or the misuse of tools could have led to immediate serious injury. Also the dangers of long term health affects from lack of ppe. You need to realize people will see and duplicate these videos and the damage done to them is your fault.

Another option gene is irrigation pipe. That os something sold in every town in america big and small. The only thing to remember with it is its size is OD not ID. But get a piece of 16gauge 18" and you can easily fill the bottom to make your D shape and reach the sizes you want.

5.5x8=44x24=880 cubic inch i wouldnt attempt to heat that with anything less than 3 3/4" burners or 2 1" burners (i would go with the 3 to get a more even heat). Before fixing that issue howeve i would recomend googling wayne coe artist blacksmith and reviewing the forgwnplans on his site. You can also order anything you need from him

In theory your shell will not get hot enough for it to matter being galvanized. However that is a theory and one i would recomend against finding out. Personaly i dont let anything galvanized anywhere near my forge. Also depending on how you form your D you might be pushing the top end limits for a 3/4" burner. I might recomend extending your forge to 10" and going with a 1" burner.

I have used both a majestic and a chili they are both good forges. DO NOT use inside without very good ventalation and a good carbon monoxide detector. You want your anvil near your forge obviously.

What you need to know dan? And welcome aboard.

It is a learning experience. The issue is you presented it in a fashion of you being the teacher not the student. As pointed out by others there where several very dangerous things you did in that video. You should not try to teach others something you have no concept of. People will see your video and copy it the harm that befalls them is your fault. That is what people are trying to get across to you.