Building a forge

[irnsrgn]

Ok, laugh if you want to, but this works, I have used it in several foreign countries when I was in the Seabees to make working forges, usually burning native charcoal, but it will work well for coal also.

1. Get a somewhat large low sided tub for a mixing basin or just use a wheelbarrow which is best.

2. Get a couple of buckets of dry bank clay and crumble it up well so it has the consistancy of mortar sand.

3. Find some nice DRY Horse Manure, its mostly fiber and break it up but don't destroy the long fibers.

4. In the mixing container of choice, put 3 parts clay by volume to one part crumbled horse pukey in layers. Get a garden hoe and cut or mix the ingredients like you would mortar. but do it gently.

5. Add water to the mix a little at a time and cut or mix it in like you would mortar. You want a dry mix, just so that a handful squeezed in your hand will stick together well. IF ITS TOO WET AND WATER RUNS OUT WHEN YOU SQUEEZE IT, THROW IT OUT AND START OVER. Its best to just sprinkle some water over the top each time, and then work it in till you get the consistancy you want.

6. Find a Short Squat Flower Pot of any material, that is about 4.5 to 5 inches across the flat bottom and has flared sides.

7. Take a handful or so of the mix and spread on the bottom of the forge fire pot to insulate the bottom and pack it down and smooth it out with a slightly damp small trowel or a kitchen spatula. (see step 10 below)

8. Spray the flower pot with WD40 or some other release agent, including the bottom, and set it centered over your air outlet in the bottom.

9. Using handfulls at a time, pack the damp clay/pukey mixture well around the flower pot evenly so you don't disturb the flower pot off center. You may have to use one hand in the flower pot to stabilize it.

10. Using a short piece of 2 by 4 as a ram, use the end of the 2 by 4 to pack the clay well in layers, but not to forcefully. Make it at least 5 inches deep around the flower pot and the top flat and level all the way around for your coal or charcoal or coke to rest on.

11. When you think you have it right, grab the flower pot top on opposite sides and with a gentle lifting motion twist the flower pot till it comes loose.

12. Now you have 2 options, leave it like it is or using a wet kitchen butter knife cut out the ends to make the firepot longer than wider like a factory cast iron fire pot. (See fig B below)

13. When you have what you think is right round the top edges of the fire pot a little to prevent them from crumbling off, and then with your wet hand or the spatula or trowel smooth the inside and top of the new clay firepot, just don't get it to wet. (See fig A below)

14. The horse pukey acts just like the straw in Adobe Brick as a binder, but does not burn well.




Now to address the problem of a dumping ASH GATE at the bottom.

1. Measure the outside diameter of your Ash Collection Pipe. Go to a Farm Store or Automotive Store and get a Self Closing Tractor Exhaust Rain Cap that will fit your ash pipe, you know the ones that are counter balanced on the exhaust pipe and close automatically when the engine is shut off. They have a screw or bolt to secure them to the pipe.

2. Weld a scrap piece of flat iron on the counter balance and then a short piece of scrap shaft 1.5 or so in diameter and an inch or so long on the end of the flat iron. This will counter balance the cap the other way like you need it.

3. You now have an easily dumpable ash gate.



The best type of blower for a forge and relatively quiet can be obtained as a unit, with blower and motor together from an old clothes dryer. They are made just like a forge blower with an impeller on the inside, older ones will have an aluminum or potmetal housing, newer ones will have a plastic housing. and they have a 3 inch outlet like a forge blower.

OH Yes, Don't worry about handling the dry horse pukey, it won't hurt you to handle it when its dry and it won't smell when hot.

Let the Clay mixture dry naturally and build a wood fire in it without any air pressure to harden it after drying.

Caution don't do a lot of violent poking around in this firepot as its easily damaged, gut it is easily repaired if damage occurs by mixing some more clay and smoothing it around inside the fire pot. You will have to rough the inside up some and clean it well with a wire brush to get it to bond well after the high heat has glazed the inside of the fire pot.

I hope this helps some people. I know the horse pukey sounds like a joke but it is for real.

[ThomasPowers]

Very nice and more portable than the hole in the ground forges. Have you seen the neo-tribal washtub/adobe forges like Tim Lively's?

They use more of a trough shape---knifemaking and heat treating were their primary goals

[Tyler Murch]

Here is one of my forges. It's not pretty, but the work that comes out of it is. Do you want a pretty forge? Why?




It made this hammer which made the sword that it made.

[Rantalin]

Although slightly off topice, I once read a book in which a group of dwarves were the main characters. Tyler's post reminded me of something I read in that book. The basic premise was that if you give a dwarf something to hit metal with, just a block of wood, or a stone, he can make a hammer. Using that hammer, he will make a better hammer, and then a better one. This continues until he has a very fancy, very efficient hammer. This is sort of what Tyler is doing. You don't need something fancy to make something that looks good. A fire in a hole, and a hunk of metal for a hammer and you can make just about anything you want.

[skunkriv]

Nice forge design. Could do about anything you'd ever need. Still not sure you didn't add the horse pucky just to remind you of home

Reminded me of a forge blower or bellows I had seen drawings, and maybe a picture of from somewhere in Africa I believe. I attatched a crude drawing that should give the idea of how it worked. I will have to look around home to see if I can find the original article.

[mtforge]

The water bellows is in the book Basic Blacksmithing by David Harries and Bernhard Heer published by ITDG Publishing. It's on page 107. I found making the rotary blower above it on the same page to be easier to make and a lot more portable.

[skunkriv]

mtforge. I am sure what I saw was in some newsletter, not a book. I recently "retired" as UMBA editor and I have been getting 40 some newsletters from the ABANA affiliates for years. I'll keep looking. Wrote down the info on that book though, thanks.