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I Forge Iron

And So It Begins...


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Oh good deal! I read it from start to finish after you linked it last night but I'll keep my eyes open for next month's.

Another update, I got my boards cut for my new anvil block and after about 2 hours worth of hand filing, my "anvil" is now flat faced. Hit it with a wire wheel and some boiled linseed oil. Pictures to follow once I get everything together. 

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I use the TSC anthracite as well. I lucked out and had an old pot I feel was designed for it. Its no more than one inch deep and shaped like a large oval. Like others have said it does not coke so the depth of a soft coal pot is a waste of fuel. I"m sure it will work but you will burn thru alot more fuel to get the heat zone high enough to lay stock across a deep pot. If you decide to use more anthracite in the future building a pot for it would save coal in the long run. Nice job on the forge, looks great. 

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Well it starts to get down to personal preferences.  I like a flat table with the firepot just about level with the table top. Some like a shallow sloping DOWN to the firepot. Burning soft coal you usually have a ring of it around the firepot coking up to be raked in instead of just adding fresh coal to the firepot.

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Hmm I don't really want to use a shovel...  

Im already starting to see where my forge design is flawed and things I can do better for next time. 

For now, I may leave as is while I'm using anthracite since it doesn't coke anyway. That way I can put some forge time in and hopefully see how to best remedy the shortcomings. I have about 160# worth of anthracite before I'll switch to bituminous. 

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On 8/8/2017 at 0:10 PM, Anthony Mans said:

 

That vice is an old Columbia that my great grand father bought and passed to my grandfather, then to my dad, and now to me. It's marked NO 504. Don't think a lot of monetary value but priceless to me considering it's one of just a small handful of things that my family has passed down through 4 generations. 

Being as that your vise has such a history, I'm not sure if I'd be using it at all. However, bear in mind that it's a machinists vise. It'll be ok to hold things like any other vise but please, go get yourself a blacksmith's leg vise for anything you want to take a hammer to. Hammering stuff in a machinist's vise will wreck it pretty fast.

George

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Charles, you're right I only meant about shoveling new coal in. I'm going this weekend to hunt for steel to start making the basic tools. I have a 2.5# hand hammer that I may just dress for now and start with tongs and fire management tools. 

 

George, thank you for the advice. I can't bring myself to not use this vice. It just wouldn't be right in my mind. But I do take care not to hammer on it. I mainly have used it so far to hold things while I'm grinding and cutting. 

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***Update***

Ive been told over and over the best thing I can do is get on the anvil so I finally did. My smithy isn't anywhere near done yet and my wife has relocated me to the backyard, but I am undeterred! 

Its not really that pretty, but it was the very first thing I've ever made. I found myself constantly shuffling coals around my firepot with a stick and inevitably, when you poke a stick into a red hot fire, it always comes out on fire and it was getting on my nerves so I took a piece of 1x2x1/2" steel and forged it into a coal "spatula". Let me know what you guys think!

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I started out using a garden pick tool with a wooden handle in my coal forge. It'll get you going for now. I found that eventually the heat did the wood in but it got me started and lasted till I could make something better. The main thing is you are starting.  Good looking spatula. I made a large forge spoon that I really like. Keep it up. 

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