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coal forge hood question


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Hi
I recently saw a type of coal forge that I never saw before. It's like the hood is right over the fire but has no chimney...My question is, how does it works?
When I saw this, I first thought that the hood was connected with the air entrance of the blower so that it can suck smoke directly from the hood and blow it
in the fire from under... but not sure if it works like this.

If anyone as explanations, please tell me. I'm very interested in this type of coal forges.

John_zXz

post-9026-090734700 1283019555_thumb.jpg

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That picture shows the down draft hood system. The hood pivots on the top of the rectangular exhaust duct, the exhaust is sucked down into a central duct system for each of the forges. This is separate from the air intake to each of the the firepots.

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That was a type of forge used in manufacturing and schools a hundred (and more) years ago. Rather than having a bunch of chimneys, they have a sucker system under the floor along with distributed air from one or more large blowers.

Edit: Looks like you and I were typing at the same time jeremy! Almost exactly the same answer.

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I picked up a book on prisons just for the pictures of smithing set ups in prison.

Several prisons produced items for sale to counter the costs of housing prisoners---IIRC "Ohio Tool" sold tools made at the old Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus OH at one time.

Not so much "training" as "hard labour".

I'll see about digging the book I mentioned out tonight and get the cite.

from www.mvr1.com/Ohiowoodenplanes.html: re Ohio Tool Company

"They were founded in Columbus Ohio in 1851 by Peter Hayden, of P. Hayden & Co. which had been doing business since 1842, and various associates. The company continued P. Hayden & Company's tradition of often using prison labor for the production of tools. By 1880 the use of prison labor had ceased,"

I picked up an Ohio Tool corner chisel out of a fleamarket dumpster once---I had actually tried to buy it earlier; but I guess the dealer had rather throw it away than to accept what I was willing to give for it...it was a great day for dumpster diving as I found a dollar coin as well...

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