Are John

There is no flux save for ash collecting on the piece during the heating. It's mostly a product of brute force and ignorance. Was going rather steadier with the pump with more reps compared to previously, the tuyere change has probably helped with the result a fair bit too. Will make a note to go even slower on the pump next time. Cheers again.

Had another go this evening. Using the new, wider tuyere for the first time, along with a more generous helping of charcoal. Closest i've got yet. Think I may have even burned the (mild) steel for the first time. It's hardly a clean weld in that attempt, but I think it's done the job closer to the tip. Took approx 150 steady pumps to reach this result. The piece with the wider end, despite having a broader surface area, didn't seem to catch the heat as well as the other. Reckon this is more to do with the angle it laid in the fire. The broadside of the faces were facing the tuyere rather than up-down, so the heat must've risen past it. Realised I was treating the tuyere as the source of heat for some reason with that one, derp. Edging closer to the goal. May have a go at making something with this new setup soon. I certainly need a fire poker.

Thank you for the input gents, it's a great help. Tried a deeper fire this morning, helped a good deal, also made the suggested cut outs on the outer boards to angle stock into the fire more easily. Dug out and shifted the box a to more shaded part of the garden, hope to try it out after work tomorrow. Also added a new, larger tuyere shown poking through in the third image, will see if it makes a difference. Few more images; Deeper fire earlier today, an overview of the setup prior to move and an image of the newly set up JABOD.

Cheers for the tuyere idea George, i'll give it a try. Don't worry N.S, Most of the back pain is coming from doing countless sets of 60 reps on the paddling-pool tier pump.

Hello all, long time, no see. Been having a go at my first JABOD the past couple of days. Learning to start and manage a solid fuel fire without firestarters has been quite a humbling experience as i've only dabbled with propane before. This is more an exercise in attempting to achieve weld/white heat temperatures, which my diy gas forge wasn't able to reach. This will be using charcoal of course. Images hopefully arrange in date order, can't seem to find a feature to spoiler them, apologies for the bombardment on your screens. Started off with a trench with a bick sized base. The next version was my most sucessful heat wise thus far; the one with the square profile, managed to get to a pretty bright orange with this one. I then tried forming a trench again, inspired by the famed JABODMKiii and others on here in a similar format. I then had a go making it more narrow in the hope that the smaller heat space would be more efficient, this didn't make much of a noticeable difference. The square format was the most promising, bringing the stock to a bright orange, verging on yellow. I'm thinking the next layout could be like the square one, forming a lower fire box with a trench running across the top of it; In order to have a more defined area for the fire rather than chasing charcoal lumps up and down the trench as i've found has been a recurring issue when removing and replacing stock in the fire. The air is supplied by a plunger matress pump, which is a 2l 1.bar 2000 cubic cm pump. I feel this may not be powerful enough based on the effort put into puming compared the results I got, or it could be the tuyre, which is 3/4". Or it could just be my fire management skills. All set ups have reached at least a dull cherry red. Any tips/ideas for this next project are of course appreciated.

More hooks, did a few J's and one S yesterday. Did a few more J's today, working on my tapers, find the spade head helps me know how even they are once they're flattened out.

Long time, no see. First go at this in months. Felt inspired recently, grabbed some 3/8th's round bar and aim to divide it into J hooks. Done two so far, need to do better on the taper prior to flattening it for the head. Had a light bulb moment at the end to use a 30mm pipe section on a jack frame to get more uniformity in the curve (the tool you can see in the first photo). Quite pleased with how they turned out. They both need abit of cleaning up mind you.

Long time, no see. Had a first attempt at what will be a wall hook today, tad scaly but rather surprised how well it turned out. No hole punch so intend to drill it at some point. Until then, it's just a hook. Made from a bit of mild steel I used for a drawing out exercise a while back that was somewhere in the region of 1/4" thick. Finished product is around 3-4" long.

Also have discovered how much of an obstacle the boss to rein thickness ratios can be. Been fiddling about with them some more so that the reins don't cause the boss halves to have a gap between them. Beautiful hammer head JLP.

Done some work on the other half of the first set of tongs, must've had a brain fart because the second piece different to the first, probably had a sub-concious slip in youtube videos i've seen regarding methods. Pretty crude looking but they do align despite the differing styles. This first set is intended to hold some 1/2" square bar to make a better set after.

Slow and steady progress on that first pair of tongs, also gave edges of the anvil abit of a smoothing off.

Thanks for the input gents, despite not using the sharp edges thus far, grinding the edge off does seem rather inevitable for when I move up in the world.

Flat jawed ideally, I've been doing a mixture of drawing out on the horn and longways on the face, would be far easier once I have some metal tongs with better designed jaws. The wood ones I use currently are rather naff for grabbing the square bar i'm using any way other than at a right angle and on the flat face of the bar, makes hitting down the corners a bit tricky. Small steps, but once i've fashioned a more pratical pair I hope to make an even better pair. Re the rail anvil; i'd not dare do any modifications to it as of yet. But the half that's in the shade does seem more ground down than the other, not that much but it's noticeable in person.

Done some more work on an actual pair of tongs to replace the wooden ork-tongs. Have been drawing out one end, piece started out as 1/2 inch square bar at 1' , now just under 15". Planning to do the same on the other end now.

Rest assured, they're getting there.