Rosco

Hey Lamb, First let me say welcome. I

Pete, Glad somebody asked that. The triquetra has been used by just about every culture on the planet for the past 3000 years, from Egypt to the Germanic and Celtic runestones of Northern Europe. For about the last 600 years they

Thanks Ian, The welds were done with a torch. I find I can smooth them out a bit more (by adding flux) than I can my arc welds... controlling heat distortion is more of a problem though. I started metal working as a silversmith and still gravitate to the torch. I made a fixture for bending the curves (probably should add a picture of it)... kind of a third of a wagon wheel looking thing that holds one end of the straight stock in place while you hammer the hot bar around the rim. I originally started with a big cast pulley as a fixture, but it sucked the heat out of the bar stock so quickly, I had to constantly reheat. I've got a ways to go before it gets hung. Ross J.

This is my first project that has multiple parts and will become part of some more or less permanent structure. It's a simple gate structure that will be hung from forged hinges, have forged ivy wrapped about and a triangular piece of dark red glass set into the center. There are a few additional parts pictures in the Gallery. Triquetra - Blacksmith Photo Gallery

I guess Chrisfrick

This response follows that of Chrisfrick by a few months, but I wanted say that I agree completely with Chris and wanted to add my 2

Hi Tom, Glad to hear from another Connecticutite. I'm Ross... East Hampton. Did you stop in at the Machinery show and Connecticut Blacksmiths Guild set up at Zagray Farm today? Great group, great show.

Sorry Guerreiro. I had intended to post a new thread, but placed it in yours by mistake. While I'm here... welcome! I'm pretty new myself, but glad to see another new name and interested person. I hope you enjoy the great information and discussions as much as I have so far.

Has anyone used one of the hand-held infrared thermometers to guage drawing temp? I just looked at one that measures up to 975 deg f

Please pardon my lack of forum etiquette: I'm Rosco. I jumped right in a few days ago with questions about starting up a coal fire

The constant roar is one of the reasons I decided to add a coal forge as an option. A gas forge pushes a lot of heat out just while it

Well, I got just what I’d hope to get and that’s a quick education on burning coal. It’s a real supportive crew here and I appreciate it. Last night I made up a couple of cubic feet of charcoal and I’ll use that to get a good strong sustained fire going to burn off the gasses and get some coke forming. The coal bags say ‘Blacksmiths Coal, Mahanoy, PA.’ so I’m pretty sure I’ve got the right stuff. Buying coke in my area is a bit cost-prohibitive (the shipping expense is more than the price per bag), but with the help I’ve received here I think I’ll have a more successful second go at it. It sounds like I should find a pump spray bottle for water to help manage the process and maybe add another length of stack pipe on the hood. We’ve got an antique machinery show this weekend in the next town over and there are always one or two members from the New England Blacksmith’s Association there. I think I’m primed to pick their brains a little. Thanks. Ross

No offense intended, Sir. I was speaking largely as an advocate of the general (albeit less attuned) public… children, dandies, little old ladies and such, who have been denied the opportunity to cultivate a more worldly appreciation for the olfactory nuances of artfully forming hot steel. Please accept my apologies for their shortcomings and my insensitive use of adjectives.

Appreciate the input. There are a few things suggested that I can work with, along with my fire handling skills. I hadn

After four years of forging with gas, I bought a coal forge... a Centaur unit with hood and variable speed blower. It's really well built and assembled easily. Sunday morning I drove 60 miles to a hardware store that sells bituminous coal where I purchased 300 lbs. Having read some books and articles and watched a few videos, I figured I was ready to fire it up. I setup out in the driveway. Everything went fine until I started to move the coal into the startup fire of oak chunks and charcoal. At that point, what I knew in the back of my mind and became immediately aware of was a billowing rise of acrid green smoke. Within minutes my wife laughingly yelled out the upstairs window, "YOU STINK". As I stood and watched the smoke drift down the street on a beautiful Sunday afternoon I realized that I faced a challenge... getting the fire to a clean burning state without having one of my neighbors call the fire department or DEP. I knew that the coal was fairly wet, (the hardware owner had left the entire pallet sitting out uncovered through several days of rain) and that it takes a bit of time for the coal to work down to coke, but I wasn't quite prepared for the very smelly impact of that transition. I've stood the bags up on end out in the sun in hope that they'll lose some of the moisture. Is there any way to minimize either the amount of smoke or the length of time that the coal produces it? There's only so much that can be done... I know. It's an older technology and people