Aaron Price

Yeah I am just glad I didn’t pay anywhere near as much as they have them listed for now when I bought it. That’s over double what I paid. Thanks everyone for your help. I will probably be giving you a shout Frosty when I get the parts for the burner.

That helps a lot actually. I had read about Frosty’s naturally aspirated ribbon burner and I had thought about trying it but wasn’t sure. Sounds like you have stated a lot of what I already suspected. I agree that I rarely hear more than 6 inches u less it is to bend or twist something. I may just leave the current set up how it is for when I need something like that and build a smaller one that will heat a lot better and will be used most of the time. Thanks for your input it was greatly appreciated.

So I made the mistake of buying a propane forge from 2 burner hells forge about a year and a half ago. I had read that it is the best solution even then but I didn’t have a whole lot of time so I decided it would be good enough. It got the job done but now I am not content and want something better. I have been collecting parts to build a new one but I am looking for some advice. I do some knives and some decorative stuff as well. So here are my questions:

1. The interior of the current forge body is 19”long x 6.75 inch wide x 3.5” tall in an oval shape. Only has 1” of insulation. Should I reuse this body and add more insulation? Or go with something smaller? I am thinking something smaller length wise because I basically never use the back half of my forge.

2. I have been looking at doing a ribbon burner for whatever I build since I am wanting to do more knives but I know a venturi style is a lot simpler. Is there enough benefit for a weekend hobbyist to mess with doing a ribbon burner?

3. If I did go with a venturi burner would one of the ones I have do ok or should I build/buy a better one?

Nothing is fool proof to a sufficiently proficient fool.

Thanks I will have to try that out. I finally figured out what my anvil is today. It was from a barn that my step moms parents have. It is evidently a 100 pound Vulcan. It is in bad shape though. Missing chunks and is cracked. The hardy hole end is broken completely off. But it will work for now. I got stuff free and have always wanted to do this so it has worked out so far.

I am new to smithing and have only been doing it a few weeks. I have been getting a lot of information from this website since and before I started so I thought I would join. I use this old buffalo forge that I found in a scrap pile at my buddies house. Biggest problem I have faced so far is finding coal in my area. I have been just using charcoal.