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I Forge Iron

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Posted

Hello all

I have been put in charge of building a blacksmith shop for our "Journey To Bethlehem" at church...We turn the whole front parking lot into a first century Bethlehem market (that has/or will have a blacksmith shop).
pretty low budget!
I have never done anything with blacksmithing but am a mechanic (air compressor) for a living and am very mechanically inclined.

I was thinking of taking a 250 gallon air receiver tank and cutting about 1-2 feet from the end (about 24" in diameter or so). using that for my fire. It already has a bung in the end so I can screw a pipe in it to support it and have a tee right next to the ground for my blower (hair dryer) to feed air.

I have found some coal to burn...and about...well, until December to test it!!

I realize that I will only be using it for 4-5 hours per night for 2 nights (so not long term)...What are some thing that I have to think about??

If anyone knows anyone in Greenville, SC...I would love some help/advice.

Thanks
Darrin

Posted

Yes to both...I am planning to make some nails and stuff...possibly play around with some swords/knives (for the roman gaurds)...I would love to actually be bending/making red hot metal though...

Posted

check out the 55 forge on here, it wont look authentic, but neither would the tank cut down, and seems like a waste to cut such a tank............. either way you go, you will need something to actually hold the fire if you plan to reach forging temps............ also i have heard the blowers from them silly yard balloons work good.......... cant say cause I havent used, but may be worth checking into.......... Im guessing you have no smithing expereince from your post, so I would spend a lot of time reading on this subject, nails are easy but if you have never done it may want to practice a bit first, and you will want a nail header.............. swords are a whole other story, not trying to be negative, but you wont be making a sword in december if you asked about a forge in September, if you want the look of it, then buy some cheap wall hangers and be very very carefull...................... For a less junky and more pleasing to look at maybe look into the "dry stacked forge" I cant advise on that because ive never built one myself but lots of info on google................

Posted

On a history note here............... Bronze would more accurately represent Roman swords of that period I beleive........ Im sure some of the sites more learned history guys will weigh in on that though

Posted

You are indeed correct...I have absolutely no smithing experience. I have access to the air receiver tank..it was one that somebody traded in on a new one. It would only go to the metal yard anyway. I have learned a lot already by looking through posts on here. I also would like the forge to look as authentic as I can. I will probably have the fire/forge about 2 feet off of the ground with rocks/stacked stone built up to look like it is burning in the stones. You probably won't even see the reciever tank when I am done....But I have a lot more reading/research to do. Will I need to have the fire/coal enclosed acting as an oven of sorts or can it just be open to the air at the top? Any advice would be appreciated.

Posted

open air at the top ......... Glenn just hooked you up with the link I see............. thats about as easy as it gets right there, your tank can be substituted for the barrel easy enough................ wish I lived closer, Id give you a 55 gallon forge for that tank lol.......... im seeing a heck of a nice bbq grill when I think of that tank

Posted

Thank you all for all of the info...I have one more dumb question...bear in mind that I have never done this before...
I can get coal locally for $9 for a 40 pound bag...How many bags will I need...or how much will I use?
I know that this is kinda like the question "How long is a piece of string?"
It probably depends on how hot I make the fire and several other factors.
I will make sure to take pictures along as I go so ya'll can let me know what you think.

Would I ever get hot enough with wood to redden metal?

Posted

8-10 hours with an electric blower, you may burn one bag, if you remember to turn the blower off when not heating metal. But for 9$ a bag, I'd get 3. One for each night, and one to play around with so you can do this safely.

Posted

I would also suggest picking up a book on the subject, as im sure people will ask you a lot of questions. I would suggest Alex W. Bealers's " The Art of Blacksmithing" there is a good chance you are about to get addicted to this anyway so might as well go ahead and start out right lol

Id stick with coal, or charcoal........... coal being the cheaper of the two. I have read that smiths in south used to use green chessnut, but Ive personally never tried any green woods at all so I cant say how that works. Charcoal does fine, but burns fast and is expensive because of that. I do beleive that Charcoal would have been the fuel source used at that time period though, here again my history is not as good as it should be, but Im fairly certain that coal didnt come into as a fuel until a bit later......... a lot would depend on how accurate you are trying to be with the look of the smithy I suppose

Posted

Well, I thought the air receiver tank was larger than it was...but, it still worked great...any suggestions, recommendations, or comments...
I can't figure out how to put the pics in this post though...Any help from anyone???

Posted

I host my pictures on a different site ( photobucket ) And then use the links they provide.

Birth of Jesus time in Bethlehem? In the middle east? They probably burned dung.

Posted

you need to use "more reply options" to upload pictures.

I used a compressor tank...I split it open and unrolled it, then bolted the flat sheet to a set of steel table legs. I put a brake drum in it. My tank was only 10 gallons though.

Phil

Posted

Nice. You may want to clay it to give it some shape and protect the metal.

3 parts sand, 1 part portland, mix dry then add just enough water to form it. It should ball hard, and break instead of squishing if you pinch it.

Form a bowl, about 8 inches across, then level to the edges A lip to hold fuel may be nice.

Let dry overnight and get busy!

btw, how big are those holes?

Phil

Posted

one thing i would like to say is run it a few times for an hour or two so you know the distance sparks or fire flies ( tiny peices of hot coal) might fly out of your forge and you hammer hits. For saftey. Another thing you could do to look a little more athunteic. (ik horible spelling) is to take some steel oh 4 inches high 6" long and weld some flat stock at an angle at the bottom for a base to make a first century looking anvil. if you dont have a brick of steel mabey weld some scrap together and grind the edges to make it look smooth. it will only be an aso (anvil shaped object) but it should still serve your purpose and give your forge a better first centuary apperacne. make sure to put it on a stump. :)

Posted

Thanks for the clay idea.
I am in the process of getting (borrowing) an anvil.
You actually won't see the forge as it sits there. There will be stacked sttone or something of that nature covering the air inlet pipe and the base....it will appear that the fire is built in the stone or brick.
I also will have a foot petal for the hair dryer and it will be about 10 feet away (foot petal operated as people "pump" the bellows).
I am considering bellow options. Yes, you are correct, it will be an optical illusion that the bellows is making the fire bigger when actually the hair dryer will be...but I am not sure I can build a bellows that actually works. I have access to enough rubber (3/16 or so) to get a pretty large bellows, but I am not sure how to make it work.

Posted

Nice. You may want to clay it to give it some shape and protect the metal.

3 parts sand, 1 part portland, mix dry then add just enough water to form it. It should ball hard, and break instead of squishing if you pinch it.

Form a bowl, about 8 inches across, then level to the edges A lip to hold fuel may be nice.

Let dry overnight and get busy!

btw, how big are those holes?

Phil


The holes are about 1/4" each...or so and they go all the way around the pipe inside in no particular pattern.

btw, I worked some 1/4" flat bar the other night...heated it to cherry red, bent it, and twisted it....With wood...how cool is that.
Posted

Very cool.

You may want to enlarge a few holes to 1/2 inch, if you find you need more blast.

Chunks of wood have been used often enough in the past. They get the job done.

Phil

Posted

For the " crap " of it, I used dried dung today, of the bovine variety, and it do work, but I will not be doing it again by choice ever.................. smell is not as bad as I thaught, but it burns fast

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