kerryd

Horizontal forge press? This one works for me so far:

There are a couple of 4" x 36" belt grinders out there that have 3/4 - 1 horse power for under $200. They will change your life. I guess I'm not supposed to use brand names here, but look for direct drive rather than belt drive, and don't even bother with the $65 model from the cheapest of all tool stores.

Is there a link to plans for this burner?

Thought I would submit my first propane forge for critique. The floor I cast out of Kastolite-30. The cast 1-12 flare was a non-descript 2850 degree refractory from India that seems iffy, since there were no mixing ratios or dry-out/cure instructions, but it's holding together. Any 3/4" burner will fit since I welded the flare off of one of the burners I bought into the shell to support the casting. The interior is 3" insulwool with 1/4-3/8" of satanite and 1/4" of HTC-100. Hits bright yellow in about 8-10 minutes and allowed my to make my first piece of damascus. What can I do better on the two burner rig I want to build?

I finished my first damascus blade yesterday and noticed that I trashed more abrasives removing scale between restackings than I did grinding out the blade. I read a few posts that mentioned using vinegar to remove mill scales from pieces. Does this work on forge scale? I couldn't find anything specific. I'm not folding, I'm grinding and mig welding all my pieces so I can forge weld without flux.

Hi, I'm Kerry. I bought a welder last august thinking about building a bigger BBQ. The tank I was looking at I decided was too big and tabled the idea. I'd been playing with a friends gas forge and supplying him with a few leaf springs and an old axle (he covets my iron pile), and decided to, rather than drive all the way to town to play with his, build my own. Owing to the huge bark pile in my side yard, I decided on a wood forge. And being slightly nuts I ended up with a monstrosity: 32" x 24" v-block that, if I had the know how I could forge a samurai sword in. Worked well for Annealing and heat treating the blades I was working on, but I didn't build the front deep enough to get enough charcoal depth for a reducing atmosphere. I managed to actually burn up a 1/4" truck leaf spring. I finished a little single burner propane forge (just for a proto-type) and have managed two san mai knives and today my first Damascus knife, all three dry-welded without blowing a weld. Guess you don't have to be good if you're lucky.