Gundog48 Posted October 28, 2012 Share Posted October 28, 2012 I have been using a coal/coke forge for some time, I don't have any real problems with it, but I see the potential benefits of a gas forge. I've been doing quite a bit of research, but I was wondering what you could tell me about them in general. I like bladesmithing, so I normally forge knives both long and small, heavy axes, and I want to move on to swords. Would you say that a gas forge is more suitable for this? I've noticed that they are generally longer which would be very useful as I have trouble heating up the whole blade for a HT on my forge. I also quite like the quick startup and general cleanness of a gas forge, namely clinker. My workshop is a garage, not very big at all. I have the most outrageous setup right now, a very heavy forge on wheels which I wheel outside, then connect a blower which is a 24V bus demister fan which is powered by a large vehicle battery charger which allows me to control the airflow. At best, this will be lighter and easier to move outside, but I am considering the possibility of using it inside. I've seen many use one indoors without a chimney, but surely that would pose a problem with carbon monoxide? If I put the forge right next to my garage door, would that do the job, or would you say to go for a full chimney? Coke is a real pain, sourcing it, storing it in my small garage, and burning it isn't perfect either. On the other hand, I can get LPG from a local petrol station pretty cheap, and it would only take up the space of the bottle. Now, this question may sound ridiculous, but how many hours to the gallon do you get with an average sized gas forge? Would you say it's cheaper than running a solid fuel forge? Also, what sort of air supply do I need to be using, and what pressure should the gas be? I was hoping to change the blower assembly to something smaller and quieter, what sort of CFM would I be wanting, or is it more a case of static pressure? Sorry for the vast number of questions, I do try to do my own research, but some questions are best answered by people with experience with gas forging. If you know of a good resource then please point me in the right direction, most of my research are from Dr Jim Hrisoulas' books and from searching the Internet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmccustomknives Posted October 28, 2012 Share Posted October 28, 2012 I personally prefer coke. That being said the benefits of gas are numorous. The biggest problem I've got ( I use a Diamondback 2 burner knifemakers forge) is it's small size. I recently forged up some half round file "hawks" and the gas forge was too small. The open fire forge allows for odd shaped/sized items to be heated. For forging smaller knives the gas forge is excellent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaughnT Posted October 28, 2012 Share Posted October 28, 2012 A stacked-brick gas forge works very well for heating odd shapes because it's modular. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newbieforge Posted October 28, 2012 Share Posted October 28, 2012 Gundog, You may also find the "clamshell" gas forge style interesting:http://www.armyofzer...lamshell Forge/ As you can see, it would allow heating odd shapes. I built a gas forge, following in the style of Ron Reil (http://ronreil.abana.org/Forge1.shtml) which so far works well enough for me. I am learning to forge and it works great for heating linear shaped pieces of steel. But I think if I were to start designing and building a new forge today, I would try the clamshell design, because it would afford me the versatility to heat long objects, or very strange 2D and 3D shapes. Regards, Markus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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