Frosty

Get rid of that blow drier, give it back to the wife or something it is flat ZERO use tuning your burner. NONE. In truth it looks pretty good. #1. The flame is a pretty good color and reasonably well centered if a little bushy. That color is the opaque light blue I associate with the primary cone. Compare it to a oxy acet torch flame, it's just not as bright. If this color flame were to be washing down and spreading on the forge floor it'd indicate too rich a burn and the Dragon's breath would have orange feathery edges to it's flames. The bushy shape might be the coupler's influence, I don't think means a lot though. The flame's bushy shape is why it doesn't have a secondary burn zone, the darker more clear flame surrounding the primary cone in an oxy acet flame. What psi are you running? #2 The dragon's breath looks to have very little or no orange in it. I can't see any in the pic, maybe take a night pic. Orange dragon's breath means rich. Blue can mean neutral burn or lean. The leaner the burner the louder the roar. I can often tell how the burn is by the sound but I have experience, but you don't so how it sounds isn't going to help you now. Just remember how it sounds as you change psi or adjust the jet for future reference. It MIGHT be running a little leaner than optimum but I'd put it to work for a day and see. I think it's pretty close. If you do trim the jet, only 1/8" MAX, you're close now. Close off the forge opening some, especially on the floor and let it burn a while. Heck put it to work and see how you like it. The bricks are starting to show color in the pic about where it should after a short time burning. Frosty The Lucky.

Good one consider it part of my joke bag. Town wide garage sale eh, how big's the town? Speaking of welder joke, I'd have to weld the doors on the shop and connex or Deb would be selling MY stuff. <shudder> Frosty The Lucky.

You can check under: HVAC, furnace and boiler servicing. They all deal with fire, refractory and have scraps. to a commercial service company what we call a drop is a scrap because they are prohibited by code sometimes law from using materials that are not off a roll, pallet, sealed bucket or bag. No left overs allowed. Calling on the phone is easier to locate stuff than doing web searches. The receptionist knows the business better than the boss and if they don't carry what you're looking for will know who does. Be nice, ask if they have a little time for an unusual question, tell them briefly what you're doing and ask their help. Office people especially love something that breaks up a routine and helping nice people makes everybody feel good. Frosty The Lucky.

Take a ball pein hammer to it and see if it was done correctly. Professionals who don't know the correct procedure can screw up a project like anybody but they're still pros. Think of it as a buzz word like calling old and rusty antique or vintage. Test it or it's a pig in a poke. Frosty The Lucky.

Oooohhhh WOW . . . What were we talking about? Frosty The Lucky.

They go together, the more you research the more you have to change your plans. You're ready when you don't need to change plans anymore. The sequence in my play book goes something like this. IDEA! (An awful lot of folk don't know the difference between idea and plan) Sketch out idea and what it does, space needed, etc. Do some reading hit the drafting board massage idea, drawings and do more reading, repeat till I can't think of anything else to change. Prototype, test, do more reading, repeat as needed. Frosty The Lucky.

I don't think a person could make steel behave like glass except maybe in micro gravity. There's a HUGE difference in surface tension and viscosity. Getting steel to do what the Chiluly school of art glass does is something I'd LOVE to see! What is pretty cool though is steel and glass have almost the same coefficient of expansion so slumping or even melting glass into iron/steel is very duable. Tempering the glass is a must of course unless you WANT crazed glass. Tristan is pretty good at slumping marbles into forgings and I've been messing with lamp work glass. Fun stuff but gooey glass is some of the stickiest stuff you've ever messed with it gets on everything. Fun though. Frosty The Lucky.

My Grandmother, Mom or Suzi talked about winter showers as standing in a wash tub, her Mother poured a dipper of water over them, they soaped up, scrubbed then her mother rinsed them with TWO dippers of water! The boys got a wash rag and soap, rinsed with a clean wet hand towel, one rinse of the towel and dry off. EVERY Sunday morning before church. Mom and her sisters had all the dolls they could make from grass and colored paper when they had colored paper. They used to giggle about naked dolls when they didn't have colored paper. When she was 6 they got an . . . OIL stove! When she was something like 8-9 lightning struck the tree out front and ball lightning came down the clothes line in the kitchen window and lit the oil tank on fire. Mom still had scars on her arms where she helped her sister Hazel carried the burning fuel tank outside to save the house. They went back to cooking with coal. Oh BABY a hot shower outside at -30f is a grand experience but I'll take rolling in the snow outside the Banya (Sauna) any day. If I ever find myself living in a cabin in the woods again forget the shower, I'll take a sauna any day. Nothing like a good sweat and a cool dipper of water to make a boy smell fresh as a daisy. . . Oh wait, that was probably the cologne wasn't it. A drop of vanilla extract makes you smell like cookies, I LIKE cookies. Frosty The Lucky.

Ahh Dave your memories of the dash for the cook stove in the morning reminds me of stories my maternal Grandmother used to tell us to point out how spoiled we were. Born in 1890 on a farm in Ohio somewhere. Everyone in the family had their own toilet seat and each one had a sewn cover. They were kept behind the stove and tucked under a coat for the mad dash to the outhouse on winder days. During my cabin in the woods days after I first moved to AK I adopted the strategy it's a good one. Then a neighbor pointed out how well a styrofoam toilet seat works, just a cesond's cold thrill when you plop your bare buns on it and it's warm. Even better! The next time they visited they noticed my styro seat behind the stove where condensation couldn't cover it in ice. Outhouses steam up the vent but out the holes so everything gets a covering of ice. Yeah, the solution is really obvious I put a plywood cover with a handle on the hole. That outhouse enjoyed a spectacular view of Mt. McKinley from the throne. Mom had other some frightening tales of turn of the last century farm living. Frosty The Lucky.

Right you are Qdog as long as we're consistent our eyes can adapt to almost anything. So long as we can still see through them. Frosty The Lucky.

No fire in the stove? Beautiful piece. Your dog's one eye'd look makes me think s/he isn't going to smile for the camera. Frosty The Lucky.

I see the association, I don't listen to rap or I might've said something else. As it is I'm sorry you'll NEVER get the RAP out of your mind. I LIKE BIG BOLTS will be running in an endless loop through your mind probably for days at a time. I sincerely regret that every time you hear the tune Baby Got Bolts or even just see a bolt, nut even a washer the whole thing will come back with a vengeance. You won't even be able to work the action on a rifle without remembering the rap I sure hope you don't spook too much game humming Baby Got Bolts. It'd be a shame, nobody will want to go hunting with you people at the rifle range will look at you funny. Heck, someday you'll be an old gipper rocking in your easy chair with the great grand kids gathered around to listen to the oft repeated story about Big Bolts. I'm sure they will have heard of rap in ancient history but you'll be able to tell them what it was like. I'm REALLY sorry about that, I am honest. Frosty The Lucky.

The ratio to figure it out is tube diameter x 8. 3/4 x 8 = 6 Frosty The Lucky.

Buttering ceramic wool or fire brick is to prevent it from sucking the water out of the kiln wash on contact. If that happens it will form a dry layer on the surface and the wash can't stick properly and will flake off when you fire it. A kiln wash is a coating to protect a furnace's contact surfaces. A forge is a furnace. A contact surface is any surface in the furnace the fire contacts. A bit of jargon so you'll know what I'm talking about. ITC-100 is a high end kiln wash with good IR reflectivity and is very resistant to fluxes. It can be applied as a slip, simply take some from the can and add water till it's gravy consistency and brush it on. Keep stirring it though or the zirconia will settle out and that's the magic stuff you WANT on the forge walls. Just take a spray bottle of water and wet everything you're going to wash and YES apply the kiln wash to a wet surface. There are other good kiln washes especially for ceramic blanket refractories, a good rigidizer is a real benefit. that goes on before an IR reflector like ITC-100. Let the rigidizer dry thoroughly, butter and apply the ITC or other brand wash. The rigidizer will strengthen the blanket make it rigid and will encapsulate the fibers so they can't drift around and make friends with your lungs. Mesotheleoma isn't going to happen unless you make a habit of breathing hazardous dust like asbestos, quartz dust, ceramic fiber dust, etc. Once or a few times isn't going to hurt you unless your one seriously unlucky person. Wear a dust mask and take a shower after you work with it but don't panic it's not like stepping on a bear cub while moma is napping. Frosty The Lucky.

Ah, I thought the mopy nature of running head on into reality was the best part for a sticky. Oh alright I was poking fun at you too. My real point is we're all been there, aiming high isn't a bad thing just don't expect a bulls eye right off. So hit garage sales for a lighter hammer, any smooth faced hammer will work a treat. I'm always looking for ball peins especially ones with broken handles so I don't have to cut the old one off to forge it into top tools. Besides a hammer with a broken handle is much cheaper than one with a handle. 2lbs. is plenty of hammer to start with, it's much easier to control and hammer control is the thing you need to learn the most. Find a piece of RR rail for an anvil, it doesn't need to be heavy and forget a horn or hardy hole, neither is necessary. A broken axle W/flange makes an outstanding anvil, you can simply drive it into the ground and it's set up. A little grinding or filing on the flange and you have a nice face and the lug holes are outstanding expedient tool holders, etc. A fellow here just made a hack for his first ever power hammer tool. Make one for a hand tool, you can use one as a cut off with a hand hammer and they're light. An anvil devil is another good option for a cut off, they just lay on the anvil face and are even lighter than a hack. So far, everything I've listed but the rail or axle "anvils" will easily fit in a tool bag. A charcoal forge can be an ammo can and a blow drier or sack bellows. A gas forge can be a bean can and Bernzomatic soldering torch. Again fits in a tool bag. You already have a hammer and if you start making some of the beginner's projects to build your skills sets you'll discover pretty quickly there's a market for simple forged items like wall hooks, S hooks, key fobs, garden tools, bottle openers, etc. With practice you can start selling simple forged items and save up enough to buy the tools you can't make. This thing can build on it's self but it's work. Good work, good for the soul to take some one else's trash and turn it into useful beautiful desirable products. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard JNP glad to have you. Ayup, newby questions for sure. Forget finding the "best" anything, there are too many variables for any one anything to be the best. You can find a best for a specific purpose or person but as a newcomer you don't have anything to gauge. Forget "stove" it's the wrong term entirely and getting a handle on the jargon is important that way we'll know what you're asking and you'll know what our answers mean. . . Well, you'll have a much better chance. As you've noted either forge has it's pluses and minuses. Gas forges don't require much skill to manage the fire ad you can turn it off and walk away with a reasonable precautions. The down sides are how it heats, it will heat everything even near the door so spot heating is problematical. They also pump out a LOT of BTUs so summer is hotter than normal. A solid fuel forge has the advantages of being able to heat darned small areas. Intense fast heat and they don't pump out a lot of heat into the room so they're not so uncomfortable to stand near. The downsides run towards much harder to manage properly, can be noxiously smokey and they take time to go out unless you clean them out and quench the coals in water. Good coal tends to be harder to find than propane seriously almost every gas station sells propane but how many sell metallurgical coal? There are more goods and bads about either but think those are the basics. Nobody can tell you which will work best for you,, even you won't be able to until you develop some skills at the craft, even then our needs and likes change. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Nathan glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the IFI gang live within visiting distance. 1889 rail is probably steel but I suppose could be wrought. How long are the pieces? Any chance of getting a chain or cable on one and dragging it out from a safe distance with a vehicle? Playing with the tide is probably a LOT safer where you are, here it runs about 30' on average and the flats are dangerous on an incoming tide the mud turns to quick sand with the rising water. Frosty The Lucky.

I'd be really anticipating to see the patterns awaiting me in that. Great score Josh. Were it mine and were I as ignorant about pattern development in wood as I AM, I'd be seriously thinking about finding a hardwood forum and asking. Of course I suppose there are guys here who know how to expose grain patterns in big old crotches like yours. (Sorry I just couldn't resist) Failing finding someone who knew I'd start out sawing a plank off each side and make a cube from it. that'd give me some windows into it's soul. If the first slabs were a little on the thick side I could then saw them at angles and see. Frosty The Lucky.

Medium Ti isn't much good for a blade, it's hardly a recommendation. Frosty The Lucky.

Jacky Gleason had a forge!? I didn't copy it honest, I didn't even know. The pipe stub on the right above the jack is where the propane hose connects. Note it's well clear of the forge, the area where the ball valves are on the manifold is not much warmer than ambient. I concur, Mike Porter's book is a good investment. Frosty The Lucky.

You beat me to suggesting EJ Bartell in Spokane, Tristan. They're my go to supplier for any high temp materials. The Anch office ships all over the state, maybe the Spokane office will, if not you could contact the Anchorage office. . . . Oh nevermind. Do a search for furnace supplies modern furnaces, especially the industrial versions use some high performance refractories. Frosty The Lucky.

Alex: I'm thinking we make your post a sticky, you can be the poster child for why learning to blacksmith by making a sword isn't a winning program. A 5kg anvil? Is it a little jeweler's bench anvil? If you find yourself a garage sale sledge hammer head you'll be farther ahead. Don't get stuck on the idea it has to look like a "real" anvil, horns aren't nearly as useful as folk think. They're probably more useful for truing up rings or bottom fullers than anything else unless you're making armor. If you'd like to make swords you can go the stock removal route, buy appropriate stock and grind them to finish. Or forge them after which you get to buy the right grinders and belts and grind them to finish. Forging is just a series of basic techniques done in the correct sequence. Learning to smith is a good place to start, once you've gained proficiency you can start picking up the specialty skills necessary to make blades and once you've become proficient at that is a good time to start messing with swords. Not trying to be discouraging but you gotta learn to walk before you can be a triathlete. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Stephan glad to have you. There are any number of good designs for gas forges here though you may have to contact the people for pics, the platform software is buggy. Lots of Canadians aboard. Frosty The Lucky.

No problem, make a 1/4" pipe manifold after the reg or gauge and you''re golden. Running multiple burners will tend to freeze the propane tank faster though. Below is my shop forge. Frosty The Lucky.

Your flatter is just right for a "set hammer". You can drill a hole slightly smaller than the bolt shank after you shine it up good. Flux the hole lightly to prevent scaling and heat it till it slips over the COLD bolt for an interference fit. Use a torch to heat the bolt and pein it down and you have a nice heavy duty set hammer. Of course if you were to take it a step farther. (Why I'd shine the bolt shank and flux them both to prevent scaling) You could bring the whole unit to welding temp THEN pein the bolt end and using V swages weld it into a solid unit. That would make it easy to slit and drift for a handle. Hmmmm? Next time you want to soak rust to remove it try adding some Naval Jelly, say up to 10%-15% of the soak water. You'll be surprised how well it turns rust back into steel/iron. Rinse it immediately after taking it out of the soak, neitralize with baking soda and rinse again. protect it with a swipe from an oily rag or it'll rust immediately. Nice salvage stuff, I like big bolts. Frosty The Lucky.