Micah Burgin Posted November 19, 2015 Share Posted November 19, 2015 (edited) Seeing as this is my first forge, take everything with a grain of salt. I'd say that, since it heated up metal fast and easy, it works. Not much else. How I made my forge: Mud, square of cinder blocks, chunk of non-galv steel (Zinc is bad juju) that is tubular in nature, and then poured the mud into the hole in the middle of the cinder block square, made a hole in the middle of it, and pushed the chunk of no bad juju steel through to the hole. You could use rocks to make your circle too, though, so this is really a good on the go forge. I'd highly recommend pairing it with a splitting maul anvil! Keep in mind this design is not good by any measure, it gets steel hot well enough, but it does not hold in the heat all too well. That said, for the grand sum of anything from 0 to 5 dollars to make, it's incredibly effective for its cost. of course, I'm going to be making a new forge with some better materials and a nicer shelf, as well as putting it higher off of the ground and gating my air in. Pictures shall come tomorrow, it's kind of dark right now and I didn't have the camera out during the burn because I don't want to accidentally leave it somewhere it'll get destroyed. Edited November 19, 2015 by Micah Burgin Removed repetitive phrasing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted November 19, 2015 Share Posted November 19, 2015 When I attended "Real Viking I" I did a fire ring forge; just set my set of twin single action bellows on one side of the firepit and ran the tuyre pipe between the rocks and used a couple of fire safe rocks across from the tuyre pipe and raked hot coals from the fire into the blown zone as needed. I will say my knees are not up to most early smithing styles anymore and I tend to elevate my hole in the ground to a height my knees and back agree on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Micah Burgin Posted November 19, 2015 Author Share Posted November 19, 2015 Haha! Yeah, well, I'm young and my knees will survive fine! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted November 19, 2015 Share Posted November 19, 2015 Too complicated Micah, all you need is a hole or V trench in the ground or rammed soil. Mixing the "clay" or equivalent into mud will only cause shrink checking as it dries. See dry pond or mud hole. Damp clayey soil and a shovel and mallet will allow you to make virtually any size or shape forge you might need. Seriously you can just pile dirt on a kitchen table and scoop it to shape, a little ramming and it's ready to rock. No need for cinder blocks, bricks, etc. you REALLY need to be careful of rocks, they can contain moisture internally in voids or fissures. You can get a real rude surprise when one explodes. They don't all explode of course but it's not worth taking a chance on being anywhere near a steam explosion and stone shrapnel. There've been procedures to dry stones posted here before, it's common sense but you have to know what to apply sense to. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Micah Burgin Posted November 19, 2015 Author Share Posted November 19, 2015 2 minutes ago, Frosty said: Too complicated Micah, all you need is a hole or V trench in the ground or rammed soil. Mixing the "clay" or equivalent into mud will only cause shrink checking as it dries. See dry pond or mud hole. Damp clayey soil and a shovel and mallet will allow you to make virtually any size or shape forge you might need. Seriously you can just pile dirt on a kitchen table and scoop it to shape, a little ramming and it's ready to rock. No need for cinder blocks, bricks, etc. you REALLY need to be careful of rocks, they can contain moisture internally in voids or fissures. You can get a real rude surprise when one explodes. They don't all explode of course but it's not worth taking a chance on being anywhere near a steam explosion and stone shrapnel. There've been procedures to dry stones posted here before, it's common sense but you have to know what to apply sense to. Frosty The Lucky. Oh the cinder blocks were just because I didn't have a big enough pile of mud. Here's a picture to show you why I used them: The tuyere only protrudes like half an inch on the other side of the mud, and it was pretty fluid when I was making this, so I needed a form of sorts. The cinder blocks are exclusively to act as a shelf and stiffener. I even took the front one off. Also a lot of the things that look like rocks in the pic are actually bits of slag or charcoal. Anyway I need to make more charcoal for next time, so that's what I'll be doing tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted November 19, 2015 Share Posted November 19, 2015 Mud was the most serious complicating factor your introduced, just damp and a hammer makes it easy, REALLY easy to make a forge. Oh and you don't want the forge to hold heat you want it to give it up to your work. No need for insulation either if you were wondering. Not bad though, this stuff gets easier the more times you do it. It's a real DO IT craft. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Micah Burgin Posted November 19, 2015 Author Share Posted November 19, 2015 I have no clay, and as far as mud, it dried before I fired up the forge, just FYI. I realized that I should have mentioned it before, XD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted November 20, 2015 Share Posted November 20, 2015 Ifn you really want clay; the cheapest brands of kitty litter tend to be clay. Have you tracked down information on building the Tim Lively washtub forge? It was designed back in the neo-tribal days and designed for home builts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Micah Burgin Posted November 20, 2015 Author Share Posted November 20, 2015 Actually, I have a tub of kitty litter that I'm going to be using for the next one. XD I have a bag of sand, a bag of concrete, some bricks, and a proper tuyere with a valve on it, so the next one will actually come out pretty permanent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted November 20, 2015 Share Posted November 20, 2015 Leave out the cement, unless its alumina based Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Micah Burgin Posted November 20, 2015 Author Share Posted November 20, 2015 That's structural, sorry, should've cleared that up. Just going to be used to make the water cooling basin and the base, bricks and sand/mud/clay are the only things that will be near the heat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted November 20, 2015 Share Posted November 20, 2015 Your over thinking it again, lol. Whats wrong with a bucket for a slacktub? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Micah Burgin Posted November 20, 2015 Author Share Posted November 20, 2015 The bucket was more expensive than the bag of concrete, that's why! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 Lol, ah your a mess! I would have bought a cristmas popcorn tin and ait the popcorn... Problem solved Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickOHH Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 16 minutes ago, Charles R. Stevens said: Lol, ah your a mess! I would have bought a cristmas popcorn tin and ait the popcorn... Problem solved Now that's how you problem solve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 Fact is I was in Sam's club and they had a huge tine of danish cookies... resisted the temtation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 Okay, I'm losing replies . . . AGAIN! I resisted a tin of cookies with a snowman on it and it would've made such a nice forge. Of course I already have a forge but . . . Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Micah Burgin Posted November 21, 2015 Author Share Posted November 21, 2015 Oh, dangit, forgot about those old danish cookie tins. Bag of concrete will prove itself useful some other time, danish cookie tin for the slack tub. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickOHH Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 You may be hard pressed to find a better tasting solution to your slack tube needs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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