jcornell

How big of material can you forge?

A dear friend of mine from college is a Franciscan priest. He's looking to commission a stand for a processional cross. As I understand these things, the cross is basically a long dowel with a cross on the end, so the stand has to be something like a flag pole stand - a stable base and a tube (of some sort) to put the dowel end of the cross at the end of the procession.

Any notion where I could look at examples?

Any helpful suggestions?

I currently have a solid fuel fire, and it's great. I can do everything in it, but I have decided to move into more of the blade smithing side of things and would like to get/make a propane forge for all the fire welding (cleaner fire etc.). I've done some searches on the and found many designs and tutorials for making a gas forge. Being relatively inexperienced with them though I can't tell what is a good design and what isn't. I was wondering if any of you knowledgeable people could perhaps steer in the right direction. I will start with knives and hopefully move onto swords, so if I can build something that will be suitable for both that would be excellent. If not that's fine I'll just build two . Any hints, tips, and links will be greatly appreciated. When I start building it I'll upload some pics so you can see how I'm doing.

I've been looking at some of the small portable (2 burner) gas forges available online and wondered if I could build my own with some materials I have to hand.
I have a dozen soft fire bricks 9" X 4.5" and just over 1.25" (33mm) thick. Would these be thick enough in a single layer to form the basic forge? I have some 1 inch thick hard bricks I thought to use for the floor of the forge on top of the soft ones.

Vic.

I have picked up some free steel.

It has the following composition:

C < or = 0.03
S < or = 0.0005
P < or = 0.005
Si < or = 0.10
Mn < or = 0.10
Cr < or = 0.50
Ni = 18-20
Mo = 4-5
Cu < or = 0.30
Sn < or = 0.005
Al = 0.05-0
B < or = 0.003
Co = 8-13
Ti = 0.5-2.0
Ca = 0.005
Zr < or = 0.02

In its first life it was used as a fencing foil (those funny little swords with the rubber button on the end).

As it's cold, very cold outside, so I'm not doing much forging (my smithy is under a maple tree in my back yard), but that doesn't stop me from thinking about things.

I've not yet done forge welding with my little propane forge. I'm wondering if I can it get hot enough. I'm using a z-burner from Zoeller forge and the forge is built from insulating (soft) firebrick.

What ceramic cone best corresponds to forge welding temperature if I'm trying to weld A-36 steel?

Thanks in advance,

J

Assuming that you use some sort of ceramic fiber for insulation, covered by Plistix or ITC100, you'll have a very serviceable forge, but the firebrick will protect the bottom (a) from physical trauma (ceramic fiber is not all that tough) and ( if you intend to do any forge welding, the borax eats through the ceramic fiber with gusto, which means that you'll need to do some repairs.

My propane forge is made from soft firebrick (the insulating type) and has a thin super-duty firebrick (the hard type) on the floor, which takes the beating from the direct blast from the burner.

Lots of fun!

Neophyte question here.

I'm on tank #2 for my home-built propane forge. I'm using the usual 20# tank (thank you, Propane Taxi) which goes along swimmingly, until the gas pressure drops from whatever I've been using to about 5 psi - where the flame is weak and sputtery.

At this point, how long will it burn before it's totally out of gas? Forge welding is out of the question at this point, as is any serious heating of metal greater than 1/4 inch in diameter.

What do you guys think of this idea I got last night. Take two picks and make a post vise out of them. I would buy one but here they are hard to find. If it works I will post some pics.

VerticalVise.pdf

I'm building a forge with my son (who will turn 17 this next week) using insulated firebrick. The design is similar to one found on Larry Zoeller's excellent website.

I'm using a refractory mortar called Heat Stop II - anyone have any experience with this one? It seems that I need to soak the bricks before mortaring them together. How long does this stuff cure?

I don't know if I'll be doing forge welding or not. From what I've read if you use ITC-100 then there should be no problem forge welding with the 2400 deg. stuff.

Maybe a better way to phrase my question would be; Does the 2700 deg Inswool have any better insulating properties than the 2400 deg. Inswool? Or is it just more temp resistant?

Thanks,
-LouieIV

"Carpe Terminus Frigidus."

My favorite mechanic has given me permission to scrounge metal from his recycle bin - anything there is free, I just have to take it away before his usual recycle man shows up.

So, I've got this very meaty tie bar and I'm wondering - what have you learned smiths made out of such an item?

Randy, excellent idea indeed.

I was thinking of maybe "Omniversal Anvil" or even "Omnival". "Omniversal" is a step above universal.

Interesting, it's not in the dictionary. They used to make omniversal milling machines. Saw one one time that was really cool. Universal mills usually has a tilting head and that can often tilt two ways. This omniversal had a table that would tilt two ways and rotate in the "X-Y" plane. But just think how long it would take to "dial-in" something like that to get all axies "normal"!

At the moment I have some kao wool sitting in my forge so I want to put a coating on it before the borax has a chance to damage it, so would this work. If not suggestions are welcome hopefully local
pickup.

I've always thought that some questions are too dangerous to ask, including asking my insurance company what would happen if I had a gas forge in my backyard. My insurance doesn't go up with a gas bbq, so it shouldn't with a forge, right?

I've never stored the LP bottles under my roof - they've always lived outside.

Any comments on what running a gas forge does to your insurance? (I'm not running a business - it's a hobby.)

J (Gaithersburg, MD)

what size stock will you be using? i may have a few old pairs of 1/4,5/16 and 1/2 tongs in the bottom of my traveling competition box. diamond and mustands. might even be a set of jim poor's flatland forge tongs that i missed my mark and mangled.

Beginning smith here - I've had two sets of classes - got the bug. I have an anvil that I'm rehabilitating, a hammer, and I'm building a gas forge. In my last class we started making tongs, but I ran out of time.

How do you build tongs without having tongs to hold the metal?

My first thought is to go to Harbor Freight Tools and buy vise-grip knock-offs and use them until the spring goes slack.

Surely there's an answer other than "go to Blacksmith Depot and buy some."

BTW, who has decent tongs for sale at less than $30 a pop?

Suburban Maryland - zipcode 20878

USAF Blytheville AFB, AR, 1984-1988 - JAG, 97th CSG and then Area Defense Counsel. (How can the military work without abbreviations and acronyms?)

Thanks for the reply.

When I was in class last weekend, I had Al (Albin Drzewianowski) look at my anvil - he showed me where the top plate ended, what type of sanding disk I should use, etc.

I want to make the horn smooth (it's pebbly right now) and clean up the face (top?) of the anvil - there's a saddle depression in one spot that I most likely will not be able to do anything about.

Hello - another newbie here.

My son (16) and I have been taking some classes in blacksmithing - it's a marvelous craft, but as of yet we don't have our own forge (I'm saving up for a Chile Tabasco) or forge time anywhere close to our area.

A client gave me an old anvil which I'm going to be grinding down over the next few weekends (very weathered, but deemed sound by one of my instructors, especially for the price - which was free).

Classes were at Sandy Spring Museum (intro) and Carroll County Farm Museum (intermediate).