Rmartin2 Posted May 12, 2016 Share Posted May 12, 2016 Hi everyone. Been lurking and reading the forums for a couple of weeks and decided to register today. There is a lot of nice information here. I got interested in bending hot metal through an interest in knife making. After grinding out a few blades I quickly realized I needed a forge. I made a home made one from a tank end cap, some 2" black pipe, and a bathroom fan. That with a bag of charcoal briquettes I turned metal red hot. That was it. It wasn't all about knives anymore. It had so many more possibilities and I wanted to know what and how. So now I am here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Ling Posted May 12, 2016 Share Posted May 12, 2016 Nice to meet you! recently it seems like a lot of new smiths are coming from Texas, but I guess with a state this big, that its going to happen. So what are you planning on doing? small decorative stuff, bottle openers, axes, larger items (sculptures), (I would mention tools, but almost with every new project requires a new tool), or a little bit of everything? Littleblacksmith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rmartin2 Posted May 12, 2016 Author Share Posted May 12, 2016 3 hours ago, littleblacksmith said: Nice to meet you! recently it seems like a lot of new smiths are coming from Texas, but I guess with a state this big, that its going to happen. So what are you planning on doing? small decorative stuff, bottle openers, axes, larger items (sculptures), (I would mention tools, but almost with every new project requires a new tool), or a little bit of everything? Littleblacksmith The main goal is knives, but I think after that it will be small stuff for now as I learn. The bottle openers look really cool and I would like to mess with making hooks. I will see where that leads. I don't see sculptures in my future, but some day I would love to do axes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted May 12, 2016 Share Posted May 12, 2016 Welcome aboard, glad to have you. You might want to do more reading in the solid fuel forge section. Charcoal briquettes are not popular forge fuel, some folk think they won't work at all but while they WILL work they're a long way from ideal. Lump charcoal isn't compressed into hard "little bricks" from powder using binders and including lime powder to turn it white so you know when it's burning. Full size briquettes, (little bricks) are much too large and dense. They're this size and density to make good cooking not forge heat. you need to break them into small pieces 3/4" minus is still a bit large but workable. This increases the surface area so more is burning at once and consuming oxygen being blown through the fire. You can't break it up too small or it reverts to dust and just makes everything dirty around the shop. Lump or charcoal you make yourself is much less dense meaning there is much greater surface area per cu/in or lb. More surface area means more carbon and oxygen burning per second so the temperature is going to be higher and less oxy getting as high in the pile. The temperature of a solid fuel fire is determined by how much air it gets. You just need to prepare the fuel properly regardless of what kind it is. Even the best coal avaialble needs to be broken into the right size, "acorn" seems about max and I'm hearing a lot of good reviews for "rice". These are size designations it's easy to get a handle on. Charcoal seems to like walnut down to peanut size depending on forge type. Charcoal is more sensitive to the forge type than coal is. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rmartin2 Posted May 12, 2016 Author Share Posted May 12, 2016 Thanks for the reply Frosty. I was keeping my post short about using charcoal in the forge. I had just completed my forge and I really wanted to test it out so I used charcoal for the first time. Although it turned the scrap I was using orange, my 10# bag didn't last long at all. I am fortunate that there is a place that sells pea sized blacksmith coal about 50 miles from me. I have been using this and there is no comparison in longevity and fire quality. Someday I will build a gas forge, but for now the coal is doing just fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quenchcrack Posted May 17, 2016 Share Posted May 17, 2016 RMartin2, check into joining Houston Area Blacksmith Association. We have a chapter that meets at Armand Bayou once a month and a chapter that meets in Magnolia once a month. Go to WWW.Haba-iron.org, or look for us on Facebook. It's the best $20 you will spend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.