Xim

well its a nice day my brother and i have carried the forge and makeshift anvil outside and are about to light it up. the fuel we used was some really cheap barbecue charcoal. set light to it... and after 30 seconds or so we turned on the fan, which produced a firework display and then quickly turn into a roaring flame. once everything had caught light properly it was actually looking very nice. one thing we found very quickly was the fact of how fast the fuel was being burned off we went through an entire sack of bbq charcoal in a relatively short space of time. do you guys stop blowing when u take the work off the hammer or ?? and what other sources of longer lasting fuel is available in UK ? any way found some scrap piece of metal and decided to just experiment. one thing is definatley clear , is that we really need a proper pair of tongs to remove the work . i think a project is about to develop..... so just for a laugh i tried to make my 1st steak knife..... i know i know u want to learn my blade-smithing technique so u can produce this fine Damascus katana also ....?? the point is this is gonna get terribly addictive i can tell. anyway more to come soon Xim

781 : its painted only and rusting in places. the forge is going to be used outside only for the time being. the "T" section of pipework is galvanized however im guessing the fan will be pushing quite a bit of cool air through that plus its some distance from the fire pot and has another plate underneath it to shield the t-section.

as the title suggests what is the optimum height for the anvil. is there a formula for anvil / waist , knee height or ?? if someone could advise or point me in the direction if this has been discussed before please.

Hey Beth i am in between Bath and Bristol :)

a gauze: basically something to stop charcoal lumps from falling into the pipework so this may work and is just gonna sit on top of the bolt heads

Hi guys i love the website you have here full of info. just made my 1st forge a brake drum type with a few additional tweaks here and there. the materials i picked up were very easy to get. 1st of all an old door to some electrical thingy but its approx 3-4 mm thick. i basically cut each sloping parts and then scored just enough metal away so that i could cold bend the thing into a sink type shape. Some more beads of weld can be used to build the scored corners if needed later there's the good ol' brake drum (not a very big one, i know but a fine start this drum is thick enough to take some serious heat im guessing about 8 mm. ok the blower is from an old huge computer to cool a massive old hard drive. its very strong so a variable device is needed to regulate this air flow..thats what is stuck on the end of it(or the beginnings of it). in its full glory and what to work my metal on but my 1st anvil.... this has not even been fired up yet as i have yet to make a gauze of some sort but next weekend i expect to burn her up. Xim