Will-I-am

A big snowstorm came through and ran off all the Irish dancers. New anvil delivery delayed by weather further?

Mr. Bones, Mickey Hart is one of the greatest living musicians, he traveled extensively to drum with the masters. My drumhut forge was built 10 years ago by me and will fit about 11 drummers but it usually accommodates my best friend only. By adding the variable speed tuyere the fire pit temp and smokiness can be more accurately controlled, good for forging, leisure drumming, woodcarving, or mancaving. That’s a nice looking metal hood above your forge, I want build a similar one above my fire pit but cover it in rock with 3 arches like the sketch.

Here is the inside. The fire pit has 1” tuyere feeding 100 com booster fan. My 132lb steel anvil delivery for today was delayed by weather. Pic is after I moved one gallon of coals to smoker for chicken. Tried to punch through tongs with drift but failed so drilled instead. Will wait for anvil before completing tongs, material is heavy 3/4” metal that I need to taper handles. Instead chainsaw carved more on my djembe drum in foreground.

My shop is round 20ft diameter with fire pit forge in center. Smoke hole in middle. Lodge pole pine beams covered in cedar.

Excellent advice. I will lightly angle grind the center of mass edges to soften the sharpness so not to get cold shuts. On the area of the face with the hardy hole I will leave it sharp to cut steel; although I do want to forge a hardy hole cutter with and old brick punch later. I am going to counter sink the anvil in a large diameter sycamore round and wrap base with an old thick towchain to dampen ringing. I may squirt some silicone in the countersink too. The floor is dirt so I can bury the round deeper if the anvil rests too high but I am shooting for wrist height based on reading this site. I looked up more info with search engine as Mr. Powers suggested, thanks.

I was also interested in "sharp" edges of new anvil. My new acciaio anvil will be here tomorrow. The anvil is cast steel from china and weighs 132lb/60kg; it is cheap $2.30 per pound but got descent reviews. People talk about taking a angle grinder and dulling the sharp edges and grinding the paint off the horn. I understand the paint fumes could be toxic so the paint is coming off the horn. Why would sharp edges be bad?

My firepit is a 4' circle with 6" rocks around the edge. The north, east and west sides slope toward the center of the pit and are lined with 4" thick flagstone. The south side of pit is also flagstone but sloping less extreme to hold material more flat. The 1" tuyere pipe enters the pit 1" off the bottom from northwest. The total pit depth is one foot. I was using a rock divider wall 1' perpendicular from the tuyere in an attempt to make the firebox smaller and tighter. The yellow color in the picture was obtained without a divider and using elm 4"x4"x 18". Trying to improve I used the divider wall to tighten up the pit width but ended up packing the coals too much and choking the tuyere and only obtaining orange color. Now I will use the divider wall but back off a few inches making the coal area a little wider. Not packing the coals and lightly raking the top only. Splitting the 18"elm to 2" pieces and using some 1"x10" cut 12" which is rough length of the hot area. I was using the fresh fire on east side of pit and scraping to the west side where the tuyere is. Did no know that pyrolizing is charcoaling, very interesting that rising hot gasses that don't set wood on fire is the key. This saturday will be the next session. My new 60kg anvil will be here friday, very excited. Take notes too. Thanks for the tips.

Thanks Frosty, I will not pack the coals but lightly rake the surface only. I have two types of dry wood available. One in dry elm cut with chainsaw to 18" lengths, these can be split down to 2"x2" but will be 18" long. The other option is for $20 I go to the local sawmill and they load up reject 1"x10" bundles weighing half ton; one is tarped now of pine. I can cut these any length. So for the 1"x10", what length would you recommend would be ideal that I cut for best charcoal conversion? I need to get the tongs hot enough to pound a punch through for the pin, so I imagine bright yellow?

I have been eyeballing several deceased barbacue grills. People are always getting the latest and greatest $1000 grill and then giving away a stainless $500 grill. A buddy gave me an all metal one many years ago. The Bob Patrick Firepot idea could be followed and applied to an all metal grill. Slabs of firebrick could be angled. The slit could be cut to the exact dimensions advised in firebrick. Sch. 40 pipe with elbow to eliminate welding with ash dump. The 3inch tuyere pipe routed to 4" hvac 100cfm booster fan with variable settings. The short sides of the grill carved out so long material can be inserted from both sides. The grill lid could be carved out on right and left edges with half circles to enclose heat better but still be able to eyeball material. A sand mix with fireclay used under the firebrick. This would require no welding. Just brainstorming.

Sorry typo, one inch tuyere from bottom of firebox. I followed advice from JABOD. Thanks for correction.

Frosty, thanks for the advice. When I got the bright yellow metal on my first forging, I didn't use a divider wall in my firepit. Just 3ft wide firepit one ft deep with coals. The profile picture is my first attempt. But on my second attempt I used the divider wall to tighten up the coals and split the wood into skinnier pieces but only obtained orange, weird? Interesting some blacksmith color charts show yellow at 2000 and others at 2500degrees? I am going to back up the divider a few more inches (widen) and use one side to make the fire and drag coals to the tuyere side next time. I'll try not to pack the coals down too much, may had clogged tuyere, will vacuum. The ash seems to cover the coals, does this lower temp? The tuyere is 1' from bottom of the pit. I would think skinner split pieces of wood like 1"x2" would be better? I need to get the tongs yellow again where I will hammer through a punch for the pin. Hopefully my tongs will be finished this weekend and I will post a completed pic.

Funny, everything metal I look at now is graded for potential use. I have fired the flagstone to forge temps three times now, so hopefully cooked out the steam that can explode. I always wear eye protection. Very excited when 132 lb anvil is delivered friday, the fedex guy is going to be angry. Want to build chimney out of stacked rock with refractory cement or sand/fireclay cement. I built 2x20ftx8ft high stacked rock walls last year on the base of my dome home last year. I like building with rock. I picture the firepit with 3 arches of rock with rock stacked chimney maybe of pallet of 4"square flatstone. Also have remnants of rock 3" round pile I used to build 2 walls that could be mixed with refractory cement/sand/fireclay and poured over forms. Could use beachball and old pipe as a form. I want to perfect the aspects of the firepit for highest forge temps first. I want white hot metal.

Mr. Powers,I don't know if the flagstones are heat safe, they were surface buried on my property from probably 40 years ago. I hope they don't explode. The smoke goes out the 3ft wide hole in the center of the hut, but a chimney will be in the works in the future. I have built many fires in the pit in the last 10 years and it is slightly smokey, but if I set the tuyere fan on low it works good for just fire and set on high for forging. Cool thing is after forging I put the a gallon of coals in metal bucket and haul up to my smoker and 2 hours later delicious pork roast. Now working on my tongs but want to migrate to wood carving adze and other various blades. Not tried to source steel yet or contact any affiliates just whatever scraps I find laying around on my property. I am just wetting my beak now. Just excited to see the glowing yellow color for now. Thanks.

Just wanted to introduce myself to this forum. I studied the advice of the old timers for the last few weeks before constructing my first forge. I converted my 10 year old firepit enclosed by 20ft diameter hut with open hole in center for smoke to a forge. First I dug out firepit ash and sloped walls to center then lined with flagstone. Then with 1" tuyere pipe fed in 100cfm air with 25$ hvac booster 4" fan with variable control. Since my property has lots of elm trees, I used bone dry split elm wood to achieve yellow 2000 degree forge temperature on 3/4" stock. The anvil was a old solid hitch on a round of wood. I have since ordered a $300 60kg steel acciaio anvil and I will mount on "wrist high" wood round as advised in forum. I tried to improve the firepit (JABOD) by adding a divider wall in the center of the firepit perpendicular to the tuyere, but unfortunately I packed the elm wood charcoals too tight and either clogged the tuyere or just eliminated any airspaces in the coal bed and wasn't able to achieve the yellow metal but only orange. Next time I will first vacuum out the tuyere and move the wall back more and not pack the coals as much. I want to get the yellow color to white. I have 2 sticks of 3/4 metal with flattened ends and flattened 6" perpendicular to make tongs; I want to pound hole through for the pin instead of drilling. That bright yellow metal color in my hand awakened something. Any improvements are appreciated.