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I Forge Iron

Welshj

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Posts posted by Welshj

  1. If you're looking for a good even darker color- leave it in for a couple minutes at least. 30 seconds might be enough to show you the steel differences, bring out a hamon line... but that depends on how good your dilution ratios were. Lol...

    Like das said- I'd try sharpening it first and see how it holds an edge. If you don't like the results from there- then you have your decision to try and re heat treat, or start again.

  2. 14 minutes ago, Horseman1 said:

    I totally jumped in over my head right off the bat and realized that as soon as my forge wouldn't heat steel.

    And you wouldn't be the first! Lol... I did the exact same thing. That forge in my picture above has since been through several revisions and tweaks... the first of which was to cut it in half and drop a burner. Per guidance from the guys here...

    I've since just recently made my first hand hammered "damascus" blade. Leaps and bounds from my barely burning slightly dark reddish first attempts.:D

    I'd much rather see you as a fellow smith- get frustrated, get answers, and figure it out... and be safely doing it for years to come. 'Cause then I get to see your results, and inspirations.

  3.  

    "I'm absolutely here for the learning opportunity to become more proficient in forging and blacksmithing as a whole."

    Then you've come to the right place. There's alot of very knowledgeable people on here.

    You've gotta understand that there's many who just come asking the same questions repeatedly... versus researching a bit, or any. They just want the quick fix answer.

    Not that you have- but you can then see why some responses seem... snippy.??

    The guys who stick to it, and come back with a response like yours above- then recover, get it figured out, and move on to doing some awesome stuff.

    You said it best when you said- "So I'm gathering that there is allot more to this than I originally thought. Hahaha!"

    there is. But you're alot closer to the fix than you think. Whoever you got that burner from on amazon- failed you I think.

    I used a pipe cap welded into a pipe- with a 1/16" gas orifice for my burner. But I'm running a forced air setup on a 1" mix tube. Still a burner- but apples to oranges in design and function.

    That won't work well in a venturi style t burner like yours. As you've found out.

    Check out frosty's t burner design here. And you'll see what I mean.

     

  4. Well, horseman- I'm going to leave the burner to the guys that are the experts on them... the one who designed the style you're using- you've already met. As in the FROSTY "T" burner.:D

    I'm going to comment on your choice of forge build. 

    You've seemingly combined two different styles of build into one. Lol... most people go with fire brick, or kaowool ceramic wool. You've combined both.:o

    The firebrick will work. Just be aware that its going to be costly to run, as you're going to spend more time heating the forge to temp than heating steel. Firebricks like that are less insulating, more heat sink. You may never get to forge welding temps with that.

    Ceramic wool is much more of an insulator. Two inches of 8# ceramic wool will keep a forge shell pretty cool, while keeping the inside nice & hot.

    However- there's two concerns.

    1. Eventually, used as is- uncoated and raw... it'll kill you. It needs to be coated in a refractory cement.

    2. It won't last long... uncoated and protected- in flame it will slowly degrade and come apart releasing microfibers that get released into the air you're breathing... where they become embedded in your lungs and mucas linings in your throat & sinuses.

    The killing you part.

    There's alot of information on the forumn here on refractories. Glenn actually sells some on here.

    Google kasto-lite, satanite, mizzou then look up plistix.

    You could very well use the existing fire brick make it a little bigger, and then line it with 2" of wool, then rigidize and coat it with refractory cement... and be good to go once you sort out your burner.

    My forge as a poor example of coated lining. After-

    20200307_121238.jpg

    And before-

    20200304_205856.jpg

  5. From all the research I've seen, done, heard- even the "h" marked spikes are on the lower end of carbon content.

    Doesn't matter now anyways if you forge welded in an edge. Lol...

    Just a note for you if you haven't figured out a tank for the ferric yet- i just took a 2" diameter piece of pvc pipe about 14" long. I glued on a cap on one end, and a threaded clean out cap on the other. It will be my ferric dip tank, going to solidly mount to the wall in my shed, where I can hang & dip my blades to etch without being in the way. Lol.

    Most use 3" pvc for blades that might have more curvature... but for now 2" will cover what I need.

  6. If you go into your user profile/control panel area on the board here- and update your location info, etc...

    any post you make, we can then click on your name and see where you are.. it'll give us an idea of where you are, might be somebody local to you to help out or even just be able to advise you on where to go to get stuff.

    This is a world wide forumn. I'm in Ohio in the US. Me telling you to go to ace hardware- wouldn't help you if you were in Japan for example. Lol...

  7. On 1/4/2021 at 1:42 PM, Rylan said:

    Little more information, I am using half inch pipe until I get to top of burners, then it reduces to quarter inch

    Could this be a problem? Is 1/4" too small for a mixture tube to draw through enough air through? By the time it passes around mig tip nozzles- that'd be a fairly small opening yes? In effect choking the burners.

  8. Too easy..

    I did the same- I watched youtube videos, and other sites... and built my forge. Thinking bigger is better.

    Then I found this forumn, and several people here got me steered in the right direction. Without them, I'd still be frustrated beating on steel and never getting the results I wanted... safely.

  9. It depends entirely on the insulating material.

    2" of 2600 degree Ceramic wool coated with a refractory cement, and a coating of radiant flame face coating like plistix or the like- think of that like a heat mirror. It will keep the heat in the forge while being durable. The forge will also cool faster when turned off.

    A hard fire brick- while fire & heat resistant... will work. But they're like a heat sink. Think of them like a sponge- that will soak up the heat from the interior of the forge. Eventually they'll get up to temp, but will take alot longer, and more fuel to do so. The forge will retain heat longer when turned off. Great for an oven, not so much for a forge.

    I kind of explain like this- the burner isn't to heat the steel. The burners heat the forge, then the forge retains the heat, and transfers it evenly to the steel when inserted.

    So the less effort to heat and maintain the temperature in the forge- the faster and hotter it'll heat steel.

    If your forge is sucking up the heat, and not retaining it... only so much of it will go to your steel.

    I built mine from light Guage water tank. 2" of wool, satanite refractory. Then cut it half, as i wasn't getting hot enough to forge weld... less space to heat, more heat to use. Theres a mathematical equation for burner size/output to forge volume/area... A few weeks back- I completed my first pattern welded damascus.

    I use a 1" thick fire brick for the floor of mine. The rest of my forge will be yellow hot in 5-10 minutes... the edges of that brick will barely be bright orange at that time. 20-30 minutes in, and its glowing like in the bottom pic.

    20200229_153248.jpg

    20200307_121238.jpg

    20201210_142330.jpg

  10. Hmm... that should do it. Usually, its around 20-30 psi for a forge burner. At 5.4 bars- thats about 78psi according to google conversion.

    Do you know how old it is? It may have gone bad, have another known good one to try swapping out?

  11. I used hellcote on mine too...

    Another thing you'll notice is that when your propane tank gets low, or starts freezing- i get a dark spot in mine right where the forced air burner hits the other wall of my forge. It literally turns black/brown. Only happens when the tank runs low on pressure. 

    My guess is that a little of the liquid propane is picked up and blowing thru my burner... or moisture. Not really sure, or if there's a term for it.

    Next time firing up the forge- it goes away under fresh heat. No structural impact i can tell or see from it.

  12. It happens... and no matter what you wind up using, consider a forge lining almost a consumable.

    You're going to crack it by bumping it with steel as you're putting it in... eventually, it's going to break from moving your forge sometime... lol.

    Or, like me- you're going to have to modify your forge eventually, and redo the whole thing. Smh... I've re-lined my forge twice now in the last year. Once for said modification, and once for unintended steel bump on the top from being in a hurry to get my heat back up.

    If you can afford to order a little more, or even double what you think you're going to need- do it. You'll have it on hand, you won't waste it... and you will eventually need it. Kept dry and sealed... theres no real shelf life.

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