Fly

Charles you amaze me with all the knowledge you have acquired. You need to write a book for sure. Your knowledge goes back so far,I hope it,s not lost after fellows as you past on. Fly

George I hate to say how many I built from kits or bought, along with cap & ball revolvers. Oh & 1848 Sharps. I had a double barrel 12 ga shot gun I let a guy talk me in to selling to him. Been kicking myself ever since. Fly

What is funny with me, is I have love black powder guns almost my entire life. I joined a muzzle loaderclub years back and went to those roundiveiws. I still make my own black powder. I love history mostly civil war. So this stuff I under stand the folks that enjoy making stuff from the time. It is amazing what people have done over time. Fly

Sounds like the tower of babble on ? Fly

I use white vinegar to remove rust. Soak anything rusty in it as it works better than anything I have found. Just rinse it off and dry. Fly

Gosh look what I started , ya I thought I might be over thinking this whole deal. Guys I,m a tired tool & die maker. this is a new craft for me. Even throw I,m a metal worker & these are some what related there still far apart. Now I may, some what cheat in some of your eyes in making some of the tooling required, tongs, gilitean,ect buy using a welder, or mill it will get me up and started faster.

George I,m have lived in Okla most of my life but was born in south Louisiana you can be leave what what my family there calls stuff. That’s the cool thing about this great nation, we are all different but yet the same. Fly Billy we also call white bass (sand bass) don,t we. First time I ever heard a guy call one a white bass I did not know what he was talking about. Last time I was in south Louisiana I said something about chicken fried steak I was what dee he!! uozz talking about? Fly got to love it (Wink)

Billy I guess your right. But I live on a limestone mountain & there no red clay here & very little dirt. You can,t dig down more than a few inches with out hitting rock. But we live away,s apart. Fly

Charles is there a better clay here in okla to use. My problem is in eastern okla where I live there’s not much clay so maybe best to buy fire clay to coat it with. Just saying! Fly Maybe coat them with cast-o-lite 30? Just thinking. Fly

maybe I,m over thinking at this point. But I,m going to make a trench type forge using fire brick angled in a V. You guys talked me into a side air feed. Would it be a good idea to coat the fire brick with a heat reflecting compound like TC100. I,m also thinking about a hinged Hood open end to keep heat retrench ion . This will be charcoal fired. Fly

Well I think maybe I tried using my smileys maybe was the problem. Any way I,m thinking about making a trench charcoal forge for my first one. I will make a gas forge in the future but this with get me started on learning this craft. My thoughts on a trench forge was using lump home made charcoal & maybe just wood at times. I live in a hard wood forest in eastern okla and have a charcoal retort. My thoughts are welding a steel frame & mounting fire bricks on a 45 or 30 degree angle with a Pipe air supply with drilled holes as a gate valve air control. What are your thoughts to my plan? Fly

New guy having hard time posting so this is a test. Fly

How do I put my location into my header. I can,t seem to find any place to do that since I joined. I,m from eastern okla vian

God blessed me today in finding this form. Guys I,m a retired tool & die maker not a blacksmith. Even though I have been a metal worker my entire life makes me still a green beginner in this new world of metalworking. I been watching YouTube videos for days before jumping into this & wasting time & money only to have a forge build fail in a short time as wast of money in thing I bought & not needed. I know many reading my post have been there done that. Just because I have done heat treatment in the past makes me know anymore than any of you in making a forge. So I will be asking some very ignorant questions in the future. Be a former boss of mine once told me “ Son there is no such thing as a stupid question”. So I have subscribed to that all my life. As Forest Gump said “Stupid is as Stupid does”. So please be light on me from time to time. Fly.