Help me improve my charcoal forge

[Jasent]

You have a much better way with words than me frosty

[Charles R. Stevens]

All to often we get impatient and try to get the steel to heat to fast, we don't need welding heat for most work, and a good soak at yellow or high orange is much beter for heating the stock evenly and thoraly. 

Charcoal works well with a 3/4-1" tuyere. 3/4" schedule 40 is a out 7/8" ID. I find that 4" above the tuyere is good for the top and a bowl 6-8" across works well. Watch your air, to much cools the stock and eats threw fuel. For large chunks you need patience and/ or multiple tuyeres to make a longer/larger fire. Trench fires like the neo smiths use use a pipe with holes drilled in it, effectively multiple tyrere. 

I use fire brick on top of the forge table to bank coals against, so I can maintained a smaller fire, or to shape the fire to more effecently heat the stock. Yes, the bricks get melty.

i spent some time looking at traveling forges, African ant mound forges, Asian trench forges and Viking forges befor Storting to experiment myself. My faverit uses a large two stage hand inflatable pump and a 3/4" ID tuyere, I don't burn up much stock with it, lol

 

[Boedie32]

On 5/27/2017 at 1:02 AM, Jasent said:

Thanks frosty. Stupid simple is my style

My forge is stupid simple it took 30 mins to make and does that sparks mean I was reaching welding temps?

20170627_120340.mp4

[Jasent]

The video won't play for me

[Xavier F-C]

I have followed the few tricks you guys gave me and I'm having a much better time heating my stock. I actually made very few changes to my forge.

Boedie32,

I have watched your short video and it looks hot to me! I am pretty sure those sparks meant that the temperature was high enough for forge welding.
I believe those sparks indicate temperatures too hot for steel with a higher carbon content.

[ThomasPowers]

I was taught that the idea was to get good enough to weld *before* you see sparks.

(some folks are a lot better at that than others; I've seen Billy Merritt weld at temps I'd consider cool for forging at!)