Forgewelding forge

[billyO]

Hello all.  As I find more of my forge time devoted to playing with Damascus and making billets, I’m not liking the fact that I’m heating up 1413 cubic inches of space for approx. 36 cubic inches of material.  So I’ve decided I’ve got too much time on my hands and I need another project.  I want to make a dedicated, small forge-welding forge.  Here’re my options:

1.)  Complete my original plan with my current forge (an 18″ length of 14″ diameter 1/4″ steel pipe with 2″ castable refractory for insulation and a 4″x10″ ribbon burner) and cast removable inserts out of Greencast to both shrink the current forge cavity and catch the flux to help preserve the outer layer of cement. Or;

2.) Recast and fix a smaller, atmospheric forge I’ve got.

My only concern is the potential hot spot in the middle of the atmospheric forger burning some material.

 

Thanks for the input

[petere76]

Bill,

Consider a pressurized air forge. The heating is more uniform. The effectiveness of the forced air forge vs the natural aspiration design is far better.

The knife foks can likely offer more specific opinions on the various designs pros and cons.

Peter

[will52100]

For me, for damascus billets, I absolutly love my vertical blown forge, just make sure you've got a handle welded on the billet.  Gets very hot, very fast and flux runs out the bottom and doesn't damage the lining.  For general knife forging I prefer my horizontal blown forge.  From what I've seen it's easier to get the ratio's rite on a blown forge and it will run very efficently even with a larger forge body.