Jon Kerr

Thats fine- its only really pushed in there at the moment. I can easily pull it out before firing.

22 minutes ago, Glenn said:

Start with the recommendations from the thread, they work. After you get a working forge, you can make any changes you wish.

Ok- sorry for being awkward!

...... I can't wait to get going again. Tomorrow, hopefully.

Hi all- I know this post is 4 years old.

Does anyone know where I might be able to get hold of a Hofi hammer in the UK?

Regards,

Jon

Aha! Cat litter is an excellent idea. I might fill the rest of my box with that.

What happens if/when cat litter falls into the firepit?

For a non-portable forge, could you wet the cat litter and smooth it over the surface similar to your MK1 forge? I dont know how clay litter will behave when wet.

8 hours ago, Charles R. Stevens said:

Again with charcoal a hair drier tends to be over killbut if you lay it on that stack of wood and pull it away so it is aimed at, instead of stuck in your piece of flue pipe you can regulate it well enough. I generaly go for a good high orange and work there, bringing up the heat to weld. Concerves charcoal and burns up less steel

Awesome, will do. Can't wait to see how it goes.

Whats your thoughts on the pipe size being larger? Will this screw up the way it operates? Like I said previously, its part experiment, part laziness. It might actually help me to regulate blast easier using the method you've said (balancing near the pipe, aimed at the pipe)

8 hours ago, Glenn said:

I thought the pipe was 3/4 or 1 inch sch 40 pipe. Do not recall hard wear cloth being used. 

See above- whats your thoughts on the larger (flattened) pipe?

Hard wear cloth= mesh? This was partly for curing assembly to stop clay filling up the pipe. It can be removed. Is it likely to harm the operation of the forge?

Guess what I started to make as soon as I got home.....

My clay is in some pretty large lumpy pieces so difficult to get a smooth finish, and I dont quite have enough to fill the whole box. I’ll have to dig some extra sometime. I think its enough to get started for now.

I’ve stuck with my 100mm flue pipe and squished the end down into a flat nozzle.... this is a bit of an experiment really and I might have been better looking for a simple 2” pipe. My hairdryer fits nicely into this pipe as-is,  hence me trying to make it work.

(for the record, the bottom of the crate is entirely lined with firebricks- so the visble bottom of the bucket is firebrick not wood!)

Any thoughts?

Busy tomorrow but hoping to fire up Wednesday evening.

On 5/1/2018 at 3:33 AM, Charles R. Stevens said:

Mark III in progres

Whats changed in this design Charles? Looks like its not clay on the top anymore? Any photos of the inside of the bucket on this version?

12 minutes ago, Charles R. Stevens said:

For charcoal the side blast forge seems to work better. This is a beter illustration of how the fire works (this is coal not charcoal) 

removed Useless photo repeat

As Glenn illustrates, a hammer just some smaller than your anvil face is all that is needed. Infact go to the museum or google images of Viking era and ironage anvils. They are rather small.

Thanks Charles. VERY helpful..... and also, thanks for your entire thread about the "Just a Box of Dirt". Fantastic, and I'll be copying that design.

17 minutes ago, Nick Owen said:

Hot rasping and filing will be your friend if you're looking to go in on a budget as you might not have access to power tools. 

It had never occured to me that you could rasp hot metal- I'll definitely grab one next time I see one. I'm actually fortunate in that I DO have power tools, angle grinders, drills, etc. I even have access to a full workshop at work (pillar drills, bench grinders, CNC Milling machines...!!!) but thats really only for 5mins in the mornings when nobody is looking. It might help me in the short term though, especially for something like drilling the holes in a set of forged tongs. (I cant punch the hole as I dont have a punch, OR a hole in my anvil?!).

17 minutes ago, Nick Owen said:

If you find a friendly smith nearby you might even be able to talk into forging your tongs using their equipment to make the process easier/faster. 

Meeting someone local would be amazing... not for getting free stuff, but just so I can get hands-on advice and SEE someone else work.

16 minutes ago, Glenn said:

Reread the thread on JABOD just a box of dirt......

Hi Glenn- your entire post is EXTREMELY helpful, thanks. Especially the info on depth of fire.

I've actually just been pouring over that thread for an hour or so and its extremely helpful. I happen to have a huge bin full of clay so I might indeed copy this design, with a couple of firebricks at the bottom of the bowl.

I will indeed read those links, thanks.

14 minutes ago, Nick Owen said:

 

From my incredibly limited perspective here is some of advice that I will echo from what others have told me or you will see elsewhere:

Nick- HUGE thanks for taking the time for such a comprehensive reply. I'll definitely take all of that on board, thanks.

I'm trying to get started without spending any money, really. I'm literally using a claw hammer and scrap steel at the moment. The dream is that I can gradually make the tools I need (starting with tongs!  I REALLY need some tongs...!). Hoping I can get an old lump hammer at a local car-boot sale and turn it into something resembling a reasonable  blacksmithing hammer.... 

15 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

A blowdryer puts out way to much air; find a way to waste most of it and build your fire deeper but not very wide---you can forge weld in charcoal!  As for fuel usage: find a foot switch for your blow dryer so it automatically turns off as soon as you remove the workpiece---leaving the air on burns fuel FAST.  Charcoal has about the same BTU content as smithing coal *per* *pound*; but is much less dense so you go through a lot more volume wise.

Thanks again, Thomas.

Thanks so much to everyone who has replied so far! Any advice is much appreciated. Also thanks to the Mods for moving the post to the more relevant section....

35 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

One typical mistake: your stock generally should be placed in the fire horizontally; placing it vertically promotes it burning.

Thanks. Do you tend to bury the entire workpiece under coals? What if it were a longer piece- attempt the most shallow angle while burying? or should my coals be forming a mound above the bricks so I can get the piece horizontal AND buried?

30 minutes ago, Charles R. Stevens said:

So the list, flip your anvil out of plane, that is use the 1 1/2”x3” cross section of the rail head as your anvil. The 7/8” web  flexes to much robing you of effecency. 

Firstly thanks so much for all your comments and advice!

I wonder if this rail (UK) is smaller than what you have in the states? The cross section of the rail head is smaller (smaller than 3" x 1 1.2") hence my decision to mount it straight. I really wouldnt have much area at all for hitting. Any idea just how bad an issue this is?

33 minutes ago, Charles R. Stevens said:

Second, plastic pipe that close to the fire will fail, and the chlorine and other off gassing from burning PVC isn’t good for you. 

Its a metal pipe with white paint. Its actually a piece of boiler flue. The heat didnt seem to affect the paint at all but as a precaution I will now grind it off now I know the forge works (sort of...).

34 minutes ago, Charles R. Stevens said:

Third, hairdryers make way to much air for charcoal, so unless your using coal you need to vent some air or you will cool the fire and go threw fuel like a mad man.

I guess this was my major problem and the reason I couldnt get my steel hot enough? I'll try to vent some air or reduce the flow. Otherwise, is charcoal an acceptable fuel? Would you say its the best option since I'm using firebricks? If I can reduce the air flow will that help my heat? Any tips on how you know whats "enough" air flow?

37 minutes ago, JHCC said:

Welcome to IFI! If you haven't yet, please READ THIS FIRST!!!

Also, what Charles said: turn your anvil so that you're hammering on the end of the rail rather than its top.

Thanks! Have now read this, and please see the above re/ rail.

1 hour ago, Jon Kerr said:

I have a plan next time to suspend a layer of wire mesh above the first row of bricks to allow ash to fall, and I can flatten the end of my pipe to allow the air to flow under and up into the fire from under the mesh. Any thoughts? The charcoal seemed to burn out very very fast, but I still found it hard to get more than the tip of the rebar flowing (and only red, never yellow).

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Hi all! I'm new to the forum and a complete beginner to blacksmithing in general! Please give me the benefit of doubt where possible and feel free to talk to me like I'm an idiot.

I decided to create an account and a thread here in the hopes I can learn from the wisdom of all the experienced blacksmiths here.

My story so far:

• I recently attended a half-day blacksmithing course at the Oldfield Forge in Hereford. We had a fantastic time and "forged" our own wedding rings from stainless steel, which really meant punching a hole through a nugget of metal and grinding/polishing till it resembled a ring. We had a great time, and the instructor was fantastic given the limited scope of the course and time available. Since I finished my ring early, he did show me a few basic "proper" blacksmithing techniques including drawing out, tapering, twisting, etc. Unfortunately I didn't get to have a go at any of these so I left with a real appetite for becoming a hobbyist blacksmith!
• The aforementioned instructor gave me a few tips for starting blacksmithing on a shoestring (including a hairdryer based forge, and a rail track anvil.) I've been watching videos by Torbjorn Ahmen on YouTube which have been pretty educational so far.
• A friend of mine works on the railway and found me a nice small bit of rail, and can get me an almost unlimited supply of scrap (liberated?) metal including pandrol clips (which I believe are actually made of xxxx good steel!

This weekend I managed to have my first go at blacksmithing. I built a pedestal for the anvil using a sleeper, which seems to be heavy enough to take serious bashing very well indeed. I'm tall (6'4") so needed a tall stand (the instructor recommended the anvil face be "knuckle height" when hands are by sides?).

The forge is built similar to Torbjorn Ahmen's YouTube design. I had some issues initially getting the metal hot enough- I've only been using scrap rebar for now (rebar.... I can hear you groaning already!). I'm lucky enough to have firebricks lying around which I guess are the ideal forge building materials. After some rejigging of the arrangement I had better success, although my pipe gets quite hot and as such so does my hairdryer. I have a plan next time to suspend a layer of wire mesh above the first row of bricks to allow ash to fall, and I can flatten the end of my pipe to allow the air to flow under and up into the fire from under the mesh. Any thoughts? The charcoal seemed to burn out very very fast, but I still found it hard to get more than the tip of the rebar flowing (and only red, never yellow).

Finally I managed to flatten said rebar into a messy uneven... thing. Obviously, I casually decided my first project was going to be a knife. (I can hear you groaning again....!). I'll grind it up into something that resembles a knife soon, for my own amusement.

Next steps: I'm going to follow some advice I found here on the forum:

and concentrate on learning how to draw out, taper, etc by making LOTS of hooks. They'll be handy around the house and should hopefully develop my skills- not only with a hammer, but also when it comes to fire etc. I'd also like to make a pair of rebar tongs ASAP as I have nothing to hold the material with currently.

Any thoughts and advice are greatly appreciated!! (especially comments about my absolutely wonderful squished-rebar-jelly-knife. I can provide detailed engineering drawings to anyone who wants to copy the design.)