Frosty Posted October 19, 2019 Share Posted October 19, 2019 Snazzy pants! Frosty The Lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 Yep, my casual Friday attire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 My wife just donated my set of plaid Bermuda shorts---I tried to promise her I'd only wear them with my collection of Aloha shirts... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 FEEL the panache envy! My pants are all so monochromatic.<sigh> Frosty The Lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 Frosty; I wouldn't have thought your wife would let you outside without striped clothing in all the safety colours + a hat with a continuous flashing strobe on it...I mean someone who's played "Irish Stand Down" with *trees*!.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HondoWalker Posted May 6, 2020 Share Posted May 6, 2020 I'm just starting out. In did a test fire in my fire pit with wood scraps and got my metal real hot twice. It took a huge pile of wood just to do that. So I built me a forge out of a tire rim and exhaust pipe. Got some coal and used a hair dryer for air. Tried for four hours yesterday to heat some steel. Failed miserably. I got the coal the begin to start once but after that it would not burn. Read up ans saw a few videos and apparently my air holes are too few and my air I was sending was too fast. So I'll be babysitting all week and Friday I'll try again with more vent holes, a way to impede the air pressure, and a ton of hope. My forge is a rim from a temp tire, with a grate on the 2 inch hole and cement/firebrick making it rectangular like I've seen done so often. It's on a pillar of cinderblocks and cemented so I have a place to store unused coal. My coal is Tractor Supply anthracite. Willing to try any tips for making a good coal fire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted May 6, 2020 Share Posted May 6, 2020 Anthracite is not a great coal to get started with, hard to light, goes out without constant air, doesn't coke. Can you source some good bituminous coal? Also there are ways of building a charcoal forge that doesn't hog so much fuel: Did you read the JABOD thread? Charcoal does NOT need continuous air---just wastes fuel when you are not heating the metal. It also takes a very soft blast, why hand crank blowers and bellows work well with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted May 6, 2020 Share Posted May 6, 2020 Welcome to IFI! f you haven't yet, please READ THIS FIRST!!! 3 hours ago, HondoWalker said: My coal is Tractor Supply anthracite. Might want to READ THIS SECOND!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HondoWalker Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 I had already read the first article. The second has some great information. To me it's embarrassing not getting a coal fire started. I'm originally from West Virgina and coal is a way of life there. Tried again last night thinking I would better see what the fire was doing at dusk. I got the forge to put out more air with less pressure. Didn't help. So now I'm thinking I need to make the kindling fire bigger. So tonight I will cut more than the3 single handfull of kindling I've tried to use twice now. Unless otherwise suggested of course. I'll get a bed of coals 2 inches thick and then see if it lights. I'd really love to start hammering some iron. If only my coal would light. Would a liqud accelerant be helpful? Like gas or charcoal fluid? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 No, that won't be much help. More kindling would be good; a nice bed of coals is exactly what you want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 As noted elsewhere, a great way to adjust the blast from a hairdryer or other fixed-speed blower is to position it with a gap between it and the tuyere (air pipe) in the forge. By changing the size of the gap or by pointing the blower so that more or less of the blast goes directly into the tuyere, you can get some surprisingly fine adjustment of the airflow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 Welcome aboard Hondo, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the gang live within visiting distance. Every hour with an experienced smith is worth days or more trying to figure this out yourself. For example most old guys would have you building good fires in minutes. A wheel rim is a poor choice for a coal forge. A flat table and a small car brake ROTOR work much better. They're plenty deep and not so big around, you'll rarely if ever need a fire much larger than 4-5" in diameter. Stop trying to come up with how to light your fire and listen to one of the folk here who know their business. This is just trouble shooting and you're changing multiple things at once. You'll never know what made it do THAT working the problem that way. You're depending on luck to hit on a workable combination. You also need to stop watching tuber videos, you don't know enough to sift the good info from the flake with a camera and connection nonsense. Some advice is downright dangerous. There are a number of vetted how to videos on Iforge. Any video posted here gets discussed at length by some of the best blacksmiths working in America and heck the world today. How large are the coal pieces? Why in the world are you letting the kindling burn down before adding coal? See the post above for an easy effective method of controlling your air blast. What makes you think you need more holes in your air grate? Where are the pictures of your set up? We can't evaluate your set up without a look, it's really hard to make good suggestions based on the opinion of someone with so little experience. I'm not dissing you, nobody is born knowing this stuff or anything. It's all a learning curve and it'll last your lifetime. It's a good ride, enjoy. Frosty The Lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HondoWalker Posted May 8, 2020 Share Posted May 8, 2020 It is Tractor supply nut coal. I thought you needed some coals from the fire to put the coal on. Should I build it into the fire so it all burns at once? Someone said that if you have too high a pressure it will blow the fire off the coal. Small holes equal more pressure. Larger holes move more air at less pressure. I've been babysitting my granddaughters all week and haven't had the chance to take any photos yet. They'll be on soon. I'm not insulted. I've literally only collapsed a piece of angle iron and that's it. I value the input of those who know how to do things I want to do. And I'm about as inexperienced as it's possible to be. I appreciate the help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pnut Posted May 8, 2020 Share Posted May 8, 2020 TSC nut coal is too big. You need to break it up some. I don't know what nut they're comparing it to but it must be a coconut. Anyway build a good fire from kindling and put a double handful of coal that you've broken into pieces around one inch on it when the kindling is burning good. Turn the air on and when the coal starts to catch add another double handful. You'll have a good bed of coals by then and should be able to start working. Don't be ashamed to use a plumbers torches to get it going If you have to in the beginning. You have to have a fire to manage if you want to learn fire management not to mention blacksmithing. Fire is just a tool. The steel doesn't care if you started it with a striker and steel, a bow and drill,or a blowtorch. You can work on starting it with one match as you go on but you need a fire to blacksmith so getting it lit is the important thing. It will get easier. Fire starting i think has a perishable skill aspect to it. I noticed how much easier I could get a fire of any type going when I was using fire everyday. After a few years of not using fire I had to re learn some things. Good luck,be safe, and remember it's supposed to be fun. Pnut Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HondoWalker Posted May 8, 2020 Share Posted May 8, 2020 Thanks for the help! It fired right up this morning. Got a good 5 hours of beating on that angle iron. I was trying to make a draw knife and it sorta looks like one. That anthracite burns great once it's going. I had hot fire the whole time and only used a small 3 gallon bucket of coal. I have to get some tongs though. Dollar store tongs really don't work well. That angle iron did not forge weld at all. Probably should have cleaned off the paint before I smashed it together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted May 8, 2020 Share Posted May 8, 2020 Most angle iron is A-36 steel and not suitable for blades. Now some bed rail angle iron is higher in carbon content and will work. It's a good idea to test a scrounged piece before spending a lot of time on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted May 8, 2020 Share Posted May 8, 2020 Good to hear you got it working for you. As you can probably tell almost everybody who used coal lights their fire differently. Personally I coil 2" + wide strips of corrugated cardboard rather than build a wood fire. We have to collect coal in a decommissioned strip mine and it's getting so overgrown it's hard to get to seams I KNOW are good smiting coal. The short story is we never know just what we're getting and I'm not about to take a portable forge and light a fire to test it in the mine. Once a sea catches fire they tend to burn for centuries. Anyway, we find out how it works when we get home. Every mine raid's coal is different than the last raid so lighting it is different. After a little while you get a feel for that batch and it's all good. If you use longer pieces of stock you don't need tongs until you cut it to the desired length and even then you only have the last inch or so to work so don't heat more than that. Happy hammering and remember this is FUN so don't let frustration build. Stop doing what's not working and do something fun then bring your problem here so we can help. Okay? Frosty The Lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted May 8, 2020 Share Posted May 8, 2020 On 5/7/2020 at 12:39 PM, HondoWalker said: I had already read the first article Yet we still have no idea where in the world you are located. That is important because so many answers require knowing your general location. Like where to get good blacksmithing coal, even in the U.S. that answer would vary greatly depending on location. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HondoWalker Posted May 8, 2020 Share Posted May 8, 2020 Location updated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted May 8, 2020 Share Posted May 8, 2020 Here I was hoping you were from the Hondo Valley in New Mexico. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HondoWalker Posted May 8, 2020 Share Posted May 8, 2020 Here's the draw knife. Barely cuts but it's my first thing i've smithed. I'll probably get better at it. I wasn't very good at turning wood for the first couple years either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anvil Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 Good first attempt! It only gets better Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HondoWalker Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 Was cleaning the clinkers out of my forge today and found that I melted one of the walls! I knew cinder block would get soft and crumble over time. But I had no idea I'd melt it. I was planning on upgrading at some point anyway. Guess it'll be sooner than I thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 Cinder block? Concrete doesn't have a place in any forge, it's dangerous in fact. Getting it very hot causes the water to come out of the hydration bond with the calcites in the cement turning to steam and spalling. Popping HOT shards of concrete off fast enough to poke holes in you. Damp garden clay rammed hard and scooped out for the fire pot works a treat, smiths have been using rammed earth for forges since we discovered fire. Frosty The Lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted May 11, 2020 Share Posted May 11, 2020 Not to throw stones at Frosty; but we really had to get out of the 'lithic periods before using it for metal working; I remember it well... I wish they would hurry up and clone Mammoths, them was good eatin'! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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