GlennA Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 Just waiting for the rains to stop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C-1ToolSteel Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 A+ That looks great! I've always thought putting clay around the interior and forming a bowl the way you did would be a good way to go for a rivet forge. You're the first person I've ever seen do it. Love the paint job too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Coke Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 Greetings Glenna, . That's a lot of clay.. Your forge is a sheet metal base and not cast no need for all that clay... If you want to improve the forge just put a small brake drum over the air outlet that way you will have lots of room on top for coal and a few tools.,'Just an ol boys 2c . Have fun Forge on and make beautiful things Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GlennA Posted October 22, 2016 Author Share Posted October 22, 2016 My plan is a Deep ducknest to keep this dang anthracite burning. That's why I have the clay so thick. There's actually two layers of 1.25" fire brick under the clay. I'm not sure the clay is gonna stick to the edges of the ducknest / bricks ... as it's a pretty thin coating & it already feels loose. I'm already gathering steel to make a new square table ( .250 ) & .500" thick ducknest out of T-1 . This will allow me to use two layers of brick @ 2.5" thick ... & NO clay. Hopefully .... soon .... I'll be able to find a source for bituminous .. here in the "Land of Bituminous Coal" WEST VIRGINIA !! 20 Years ago .. I could pick up a sack of bituminous along the roads that fell off the trucks ... but no more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lou L Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 Glen, I think you are going to have a hard time keeping anthracite burning with that Champion 400. It needs constant air with some decent static pressure. You may have one heck of a versatile forge there if you drill a hole with a hole saw in the side of the forge body, through the clay and right into the heart of your duck's nest (about 2 inches from the bottom). Feed some schedule 40 pipe in and use a blower to feed air. The 400 blower will be your secondary blower for when you need more heat and the electric blower will be your maintenance air when using anthracite. You could still burn bituminous and charcoal with the 400 alone. It would be one heck of a flexible little forge that way! I have that exact same forge but am waiting for my chance at a 400 to get the complete set. I, too, burn anthracite because of availability but I use a side blast. Chandler on YouTube burns anthracite in a bottom blast though, so it does work. But he runs a blower into the intake of his hand crank blower and uses the blower as a booster (another option for you). either way you do it you will definitely find that you need constant air. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 I also burn anthracite in a rivet forge; in my case, I've jammed the pipe from my blower up the ash dump. Inelegant, but it works pretty well. As for the depth of the duck's nest, more than a couple of inches is too deep. Check out the fire cross section diagram in the pinned post on "Forges and Fires"; you'll see that putting the fire too deep in the forge means that it's harder to get your workpiece in the sweet spot of the fire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 The Pittsburgh Seam was and is the main coal in the Panhandle Coalfield. In certain areas the Sewickley seam was mined, and small "punch mines" penetrated into the Waynesburg seam. There was only a little Pittsburgh Seam in Hancock County, but there has been some mining of Lower Kittanning Coal around New Cumberland and Newell. Consol was the dominant company. Their Shoemaker and McElroy operations (now owned and renamed by Murray Energy) are still producing coal into the 21st Century. And recently the Tunnel Ridge coal mine on Short Creek began mining what the Wheeling Intelligencer called the last known coal reserves of Ohio County, West Virginia (at least as far as the Pittsburgh seam goes). Contact the coal mines in the area and ask where you can purchase a small amount of coal for blacksmithing. Your 25 miles or so from Pittsburgh Pa, Go to the Pittsburgh blacksmith meetings and buy some coal there. They should have the good stuff. A quick internet search listed 30+ locations where you can buy coal in Wheeling WV, just down the road from your location. The information may be dated and not all are expected to give a good hit, but ask for references or locations when you call. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 GlennA if your willing to drive an hour or so I can tell you ( or show you) a place to get bituminous coal that is close to me. I looked and it said you are an hour from my location. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GlennA Posted October 22, 2016 Author Share Posted October 22, 2016 Glenn, 20 years ago, I worked a "Pittsburgh seam" here in Brooke county.Wv & worked a "Waynesburg seam" in Eightyfour, PA I can't find a single source of Bituminous in Wheeling (about 20 minutes south of me) ... I would LOVE that ! Tunnel Ridge in Short Creek is only about 10 minutes southwest of me .... I've been thinking about stopping by & asking some questions. I know they belt all their coal to a river barge loading facility on the Ohio River. Wanna hear some irony ? .. I'm currently working right next doot to the former Wheeling-Pittsburgh Coke Plant in Follansbee, WV ... now known as Mountain State Carbon. They have MOUNTAINS of Coal & Coke piled up. Yeh ... I used to work in there too. Sheesh ... I could have had buckets of the stuff & no one would have said "Boo". Daswulf, I have a couple more "leads" to pursue locally ... but I may end up needing your assistance. Thanks ! I'm not chasing coal very hard right now ... just getting things taken care of before I need it ... getting things ready around here for winter ... & nursing a bad back. Thanks guys .. for the info & replies ! 6 hours ago, Lou L said: Feed some schedule 40 pipe in and use a blower to feed air. The 400 blower will be your secondary blower for when you need more heat and the electric blower will be your maintenance air when using anthracite. You could still burn bituminous and charcoal with the 400 alone. It would be one heck of a flexible little forge that way! ........................................................................ .................... But he runs a blower into the intake of his hand crank blower and uses the blower as a booster (another option for you). either way you do it you will definitely find that you need constant air. I like those ideas Lou ! I am currently gathering up steel to make a new table for the forge .... I may incorporate the side blow into the design. This may help when I convince one of the local Coke hauler trucks that his tailgate latches need adjusted & I will do it along side the road ... for free. I had actually thought of scabbing something over the 400 intake to tap into with a hair drier or such. I've got several circular magnets that may work like a peach ! This would also insure that the positive air would not be lost out through the idle 400. Thanks for the reply Lou ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GlennA Posted October 22, 2016 Author Share Posted October 22, 2016 7 hours ago, JHCC said: ............. As for the depth of the duck's nest, more than a couple of inches is too deep. Check out the fire cross section diagram in the pinned post on "Forges and Fires"; you'll see that putting the fire too deep in the forge means that it's harder to get your workpiece in the sweet spot of the fire. JHCC, I built an anthracite fire a couple of weeks ago ... & quickly found out that I needed a deeper fire to even get a Sweet Spot. This anthracite works nothing like the bituminous that I have fiddled with in a friend's forge a few years ago. My anthracite fire did not study the Fire Cross Section Diagram. Stoopid Coal ! 8^) Thanks for the advice tho ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 Your welcome to it. Just pm me. Last I bought it it was around $85. A ton. Haven't been there yet this season but I will be soon. He holds odd hours. Nice guy tho. Let me know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GlennA Posted October 23, 2016 Author Share Posted October 23, 2016 Das, Ah yes .... Charleroi ... just north of the "Broken Bridge". I was just by there a couple weeks ago .. on my way to Greensburg to pick up a Craigslist 400 Could I ask you to contact me when you get ready to go buy your coal ? I may just meet up with you & buy a ton for myself. Bituminous .... Right ? Thanks ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lou L Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 GlennA, be careful taking advice from me...I'm an idiot! ....Seriously though, thanks for the heads up. I'm a newb to smithing but I'm a newb who has at least 1000 hours of study beyond my hours of practice at the forge. I generally only respond when I think something I've learned might be helpful but I like to warn people that the regulars here have forgotten more than I know. So far a curmudgeon hasn't jumped in and explained why I'm off here so I feel good! If it wasn't so late I'd go light up the forge and smack some metal to celebrate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 Yup Glenn, It's bituminous. I will let you know when I will be planning on going. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigb Posted October 26, 2016 Share Posted October 26, 2016 I need to get some clay to change the shape of my fire pot and forge floor a bit, it is a barrel forge presently funnel shaped and I need to bring the fire up a bit higher and level the floor a bit. Question is what kind of clay should I use? Local pottery shop sells recycled clay for $15 twenty pounds. Or I can get something like a castable fire brick mix at the kiln shop that needs to be fired and costs a lot more than $15. Near as I can tell the forge is made from dirt/clay with hardware cloth on top covered with refractory cement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lou L Posted October 26, 2016 Share Posted October 26, 2016 I'm not particularly knowledgeable about clawing but I have read people describing mixes they make with regular clay, sand and other aggregates like pearlite or something else. I don't have specifics but I know it has been described on IFI in the past. This is a recent one: Claying a forge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted October 26, 2016 Share Posted October 26, 2016 9 hours ago, bigb said: I need to get some clay to change the shape of my fire pot and forge floor a bit, it is a barrel forge presently funnel shaped and I need to bring the fire up a bit higher and level the floor a bit. Question is what kind of clay should I use? Local pottery shop sells recycled clay for $15 twenty pounds. Or I can get something like a castable fire brick mix at the kiln shop that needs to be fired and costs a lot more than $15. Near as I can tell the forge is made from dirt/clay with hardware cloth on top covered with refractory cement. What ever is under the grass in your backyard will probably work just fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigb Posted October 26, 2016 Share Posted October 26, 2016 No grass here mostly sand and cactus but I get your point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 26, 2016 Share Posted October 26, 2016 Cheapest kitty litter is generally clay; do not advise using used however... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Evans Posted October 26, 2016 Share Posted October 26, 2016 1 hour ago, ThomasPowers said: Cheapest kitty litter is generally clay; do not advise using used however... When I visited Christoph Friedrichs' Alte Hammer Schmiede in Sennwald (Water powered forge) the first time, I was most impressed by the water wheel's main bearings which were lumps of stone with a notch in the top that the spindle rotated in. I asked him what sort of stone it was and he said it is called catstone. When I queried the name he said, try smelling it!....Cat pee extraordinary! Alan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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