NathanM

Shainarue,   I'd love to see what yours looks like. Here is mine. The last picture is what I believe mine looked like. I found my blower was in poor shape so I have already started making new fan blades for it. I realy like the patina on it so i may just leave it (meaning not paint it). but other than that I'm going to bring it back to working order.

Charles R. Stevens,

Thank you. Your comment is very descriptive. i wish i had read the forms a little more before posting. but, im glad i found the this forum any how!

Frosty, 

Thank you as well. I will post some updated pictures when I can. I found the blower blades to be in pretty poor shape. I'm going to replace them. Then try to clay line the forge. Any idea where I can find another blower grate? This one is in very poor shape.

Frosty, Irondragon ForgeClay Works

thank you both for the response

3 hours ago, Charles R. Stevens said:

All clays are refractory, some are more resistant to heat than others. 
almost any clay you dig up, find in a road cut, River bank or other formation where you can see the stratification of the soil will work. Mix 2 parts powdered clay to one part sand (there are other grogs that will work well such as ground fire brick, grog from a pottery supply, volcanic ash and diatomic earth to name a few) the sand cuts down on cracks. 

thank you for the reply. do you have any examples? like pictures? I will try this and post a picture when I can. I'm new to coal forges. I could not pass up bring this old girl back to life. its a antique buffalo forge.  the last photo is my best guess as to what it used to look like.

I have been using propane for a few years now. its time to expand my knowledge a little bit and have a bit more freedom on stock sizes.

I recently purchased and plan to repair a forge very similar to Martin Mendells. i seen the painted forge. it looks nice, I am also from Michigan. did you ever end up lining it with clay? or does anyone have an answer on how to do it? id like to make mine operational again I'm glad I found this form. I didn't take into consideration these were lined with something at one point. Any feed back would be greatly appreciated

May be a long shot, but did you ever come up with an answer?