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My first attempt at making a forge. Looking for improvements critiques or suggestions for a hood/chimney. This site has been a great source of inspiration and motivation.

Hey everyone! I built my first forge ever yesterday out of some bricks in an old grill. I’m using a black iron pipe and a hair dryer with a shop vac attachment as my air source. Charcoal is the fuel. Mid anyone has any suggestions or recommendations please let me know what I need to do to forge properly and safely. Thanks Dallas

I was commissioned to reproduce a latch set for a customer in Arizona, and a Speakeasy door and grill for a local customer. Small 7.5" x 14" door and grill Plasma cut 14 ga, weld on hinges, with a squirrel tail handle latch set. This is the original latch set I was asked to reproduce. Its a bit crude but the customer really liked it. the end of the handle and the clip are slightly forged out and then there are very thin fuller marks on the ends, so i duplicated that. I was not able to match the 3/8" rivet because the ones made now have a slightly smaller head. I did grind an angle on the latching end of the handle because the clip is angled and this allows the latch to friction fit nice and tight, so the doors do not rattle. I had 2 hours tooling up a couple jigs, and about 5 hours cutting, forging, drilling holes, assembling,....... I had to heat all of them up to orange heat so the unforged parts would scale up and be wire brushed, for a more consistent look that the customer asked for, the orange heat removes all the mill scale and so the rusted patina will take more evenly over the piece. I used scale dust on the piece to work the handle loose from the mounting plate its riveted to. Scale dust is very abrasive and effective at getting the handles loosened up so the function nicely. 8 sets forged and riveted together. Tomorrow I will pull them out of the muriatic acid Spray with hydrogen peroxide to rust them, then apply wax to darken the rust up to match the original.

its just a small grill for basement window...

Hello all, I am wanting to start forging simple grill tools. My question is, since obviously they are going to be used on food, is there a certain type of metal I need to be using? Or a certain way of treating the metal when I am done so that it is safe for food use? Thanks!

Any one have any experience using one of these for a small forge? Found it on amazon. It's a hand crank blower made for heating up grill coals. It seems like a lot of work, but in a pinch.. http://www.amazon.com/AIR-GRILL-BLOWER-Charcoal-Fireplaces/dp/B0001WOLOS Saw a vid of a camper using one for a small forge.