wolfman192 Posted August 25, 2009 Share Posted August 25, 2009 Just wanted to say Hi, and what an excellent, informative site this is. My name is Mostyn and I hail from the UK, and after about 25 years of longing, I finally found myself in the position of being able to build a workshop and indulge my fascination with steel. My interest is in small hand tools, folding knives, and perhaps after a lot of experience some kitchen cutlery (No, I don't want to make a Broadsword ) I am currently reading as many posts as I can here, and have already found some valuable information directly applicable to what I am working with right now. For the record, the first things I bought before I even thought about tools, was lots of books on blacksmithing, knives, metallurgy, home workshops etc. I have a possibly dumb starter question, and please redirect me if I have not yet found the relevant thread. Due to my current circumstances, I am unable to operate a charcoal/coke/or even gas forge. I do however own a pretty good electric muffle furnace (max temp 1100 C). Would I be out of my mind to think I could use this for forging or pattern welding? Whilst I have read a lot about using them for heat treating, I haven't found anything for or against using it instead of a traditional forge. Anyway, once I get the courage up, I shall try and post some pictures of my work in the relevant sections here (and wow there are some awesome pictures/practitioners here). Regards Wolfman192 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted August 25, 2009 Share Posted August 25, 2009 Welcome aboard Mostyn, glad to have you. As a matter of fact I have used a muffle furnace as an electric forge. It was slow to heat the work unless it was itself at high yellow and then the stock sucked the heat out pretty fast. The only muffle furnaces I've seen don't have much thermal mass so they don't make the best reverberatory furnaces. It WILL work, just not really well. Still it's a lot better than staring at the iron and wishing. Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ted T Posted August 25, 2009 Share Posted August 25, 2009 Welcome aboard Wolfman192 It sounds like you are doing your home work, and that is a great asset for someone who wants to pursue the blacksmithing and related crafts. I sure don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beth Posted August 25, 2009 Share Posted August 25, 2009 hi wolf - im in uk too so double hi:) im moe into artist smithing but love reading about all the stuff the bladesmiths get up to! hope you find what your looking for on here. Where abouts are you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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