C.Read

It's a 3M mask that is NIOSH approved: P100. It says it blocks zinc and lead dust and oil. https://m.lowes.com/pd/3M-Reusable-Sanding-Valved-Safety-Mask/1000027149

Thank you! I will read up on it. I have already been using a respirator, goggles, gloves, and my leather welding apron.

Thomas- I guess I'll need to look it up. So is the scale made from the metal melting in the foundry and then oxidizing? Hand-held Definitely seen lots of the white power on the tools after my three burns of Brass. I will for sure have to look up ways to prevent it especially because I want to get into knife making.

Is that the metal flaking off? Is the wall thinning because of it?

Okay I was using the borax way wrong. I would get a punch with my gloves and sprinkle it in while the crucible was still in the foundry. As for brass, I melt outside with a respirator mask on. Plus I always try to stay up wind. I figure you can't be too safe. I need to get some fire bricks. The brick in the bottom of my foundry has broken in three different spots. My steel crucible sheds like a thin layer every time I fire it. It just has a a thin layer that is bubbled, looks like paint, but there is no pushing paint on the metal. I am going to make another steel crucible for the aluminum, so I can melt a lot. But the steel crucibles are heavy sands hard to pour so I'm going to weld up a pouring stand I saw in a YouTube video. For that crucible I'm going to drill holes at the top. Here is a drawing

Hans - I am using borax. I just got a good skimmer shoo that should help. I put a little borax in at the beginning and the end. One problem I'm having is that when I try to put it in at the end the fire burns most of it up before I get it in to the crucible. Also I'm running a 8kg crucible but my foundry sashes it can take a 10. But if I make a bigger steel crucible that's taller than the graphite ones, I can melt more than that. I can use my current clay graphite crucible for brass going forward. Thomas- I'm not using a degasser

Looking good Hans. I like my little foundry but I'm also looking to the future of getting a larger forge. I am wanting to make ash trays for a couple of my buddies cigar shops and I'm not sure if I can melt enough aluminum at one time to make them. I took a hiatus to try making some things and here are my results. My first try at casting was brass knuckles. They were not good but atleast it wasn't a total disaster. My second try was the ashtray is modeled after the red one ( I forgot to take pictures before I cut it up), I got the top 1/3 shaped perfectly but then I ran out of aluminum. So this is why I think I'm going to need a bigger foundry, or custom make a crucible like the one I use for brass (the steel one in the pictures I use for brass now). The clay graphite I got does not hold enough metal (you read that right, I used the new crucible and I cured it and it didn't break) So I thought things were going better so I tried using Styrofoam to redo the brass knuckles, this time it was a disaster. The metal somehow went through the sand and created a mess. That is what the picture of a mangled mess was. I seem to be able to pour ingots pretty good. So I have a buddy who has a cnc milling machine and is going to make me a negative of the ashtray for me and I can just melt and pour into steel like my steel muffin pan. So I'll shut up now and let y'all put your Windom on me.

Thanks for all the advice! :). I got paid today so I'm going to order a crucible, casting sand and flux. Are any brands better than the next? Should I go with petrobond sand?

Thomas- very true Buzz- I was thinking along the lines of buying something like in the picture. I've never done anything before, BUT I want to try hammering it out, getting my shape, and heat treating it my self. If I mess up, then hey it as a learning lesson. I would buy plain steel blanks to learn on before spending the money on demascus. Oh one more thing I have been heating up rebar and hammering it. Not going to do anything with it, but I figured it might be good practice.

I don't have to use found steel. I guess I was getting ahead of my self. I want to learn this art the right way. I guess watching forged in fire isn't vey realistic for a beginner. I guess one day I would like to have the skills to pick up scrap metal and turn out beautiful demascus blades. Is using blanks considered cheating (lol)? The reason I ask about cheating is because I have heard people in the past say stuff like he can't really make a knife he is just using a file blah blah. I want to be able to proudly say I made this.

I did see those. But I have a lot of standard size rebar. So I'll probably just weld a rebar to the blank.

That makes since. well since I'm mainly wanting to get blocks of steel to hammer out to knife blanks, What did you suggest? For the two pieces of rebar I have I'll just weld them on a longer piece of steel to work with.

My buddy hooked me up with 4 swing arms, and some other pieces of aluminum.