First fire, First tool!

[IronPuppet]

There was a storm last night and the rain hung around in the morning. After lunch the sun came out from behind the clouds and warmed up the place a bit. In the later part of the afternoon there was no wind to speak of and the rain let up, so I opened the side door of my garage and started to set up my new forge.

The rain had soaked the clay. I started by taking my torch and cutting off the bit of pipe sticking up above the floor of the fire pot that you see in this pic.

(first photo below)

Then I set a wood fire to get things started.

(second photo below)

After a while things got going. I already can see how to make improvements in this rig.

(third photo below)

That rebar to the left is my first tool in the making. A fire poker, in keeping with tradition. The flat bar is for my first tongs and the round stock is for a hot cut chisel. Here is how I had it all set up.

(fourth photo below)

As you can see I had to move my vice in front of the forge to act as a rest. This has me thinking that I will cut the forge apart and weld it back together again with the tire rim lower in the frame so the front of the frame can act as a rest. I plan to make a rest for longer stock too.

So here's what I made "La-Fier Pokier Extraordinaire"!

(fifth photo below)

Notice the rich craftsmanship of the handle.

(sixth photo below)

The hours of toiling with the red hot steel to produce zee refined form.

(seventh photo below)

Notice how well the new tool fits in to the whole ensemble.

(eighth photo below)

Right!

After I made that, it started to rain again. So that put the kibosh on the rest of the proceedings. Anyway, I had a whole lot of fun, and Mother nature smiled on me at the end with a rain bow.

(ninth photo below)

It was a good day for the first time forging in 25 years. I didn't even burn myself.

Yet!

Christopher

[Don A]

Good looking rig. No turning back now.

One suggestion: find yourself some real charcoal and get rid of the briquets. You will be amazed at the difference.

You can make your own or find it in the grill section of most of the big stores.

Keep it up,

Don

[Jmercier]

Not so much of a suggestion as a mandate... get rid of those briquettes. Charcoal for bbqing is mostly compacted sawdust treated with chemicals and the like to make it burn easier, and the fumes, particularly when working at forigng temps WILL make you sick.

If there is a Lowes near you, they sell real lump hardwood charcoal in 20lb bags for like 4 bucks a bag. That is suitable for forging. It doesnt last as long as bituminous coal would on a per-volume basis, but by weight you'll get similar amounts of work done (the charcoal being much less dense)

I'd love to get a nice coal/charcoal fire forge going, but where I live it's not feasible, instead Iv'e got 3 propane forges. At times it really feels like I'm 'missing' something of the smithing experience by never really having learned to tend a coal fire.

[Gronk]

Christopher: Sounds like a geat first day (even after a 25 year vacation), and you even got a usable tool out of the deal. I'm not even upset that you stole my decorative handle design.

Charcoal will give a much better heat than those briquettes for sure. The downside, with an open-air setup, is charcoal throws lots and lots of "fleas". A windbreak might be in order, especially if it's windy.

If you have trouble finding it locally, you can Google Cowboy or Royal Oak brand and have it shipped to you. Lots of places catering to BBQ and smoker enthusiasts are carrying it these days.

Jmercier: I'm not far from you. Give a jingle if you want to forge with coal or charcoal.

[Michael]

Great work, and good thinking making a forge with table space to put stuff down on. Cowboy Brand charcoal, in my experience, has a lot less forge fleas than mesquite, so get away from those briquets, even though my own first forge fire was Kingsford, the piece of steel hammered into a wedge shape eventually became the replacement wedge for my post vise.

[Archie Zietman]

even using wood chips is far better than the briquettes, they char-coke very quickly and don't spark like the bought charcoal. Or you could use corn. at 5 dollars for 50 pounds of dried cracked corn, it's a very good deal, work exactly like coal, just with bigger flames from burning smoke.

[Ecart]

Again, good thinking on the table. If I ever get my new forge up and running, it is going to have a sizeable work space where I can put oft-used tools within arm's reach. I imagine I'll have to retrain myself NOT to go on a goose chase for tools that should be right there.
Looking good so far.

[julian]

i agree with above posts; bruiqettes will make ya wheeze. Try finding a heap of those wooden things (not sure what they're called) that heavy boxes are put on so forklifts can pick them up. Any ol' wood will work as charcoal, I hear hardwood is preferable. If you have a bulk trash pickup day around your house you might try driving around looking for old wood tables or chairs people set out for the garbage man.

[IronPuppet]

Got my forge fired up last the other day and the first thing I made was a fire poker out of rebar.

Christopher

[Jim Pennock]

BT, pardon my ignorance, what is that? Looks like a really cool handle.....Jim