That's okay. You also want the top of the forge to be completely covered as well. Otherwise, you'll get sand getting scraped off the surface as you rake coal into the fire. At that point, you might as well just clay the whole thing. 

On ‎10‎/‎14‎/‎2017 at 8:16 AM, JHCC said:

That's okay. You also want the top of the forge to be completely covered as well. Otherwise, you'll get sand getting scraped off the surface as you rake coal into the fire. At that point, you might as well just clay the whole thing. 

I understand that it would be the "best" thing to clay everything, the issue is that I don't have enough clay, so what I finished out with is about 3 inches of clay for the bottom of the entire box, and the walls of my trench are made of clay they are about 2-3 inches thick, and the rest of the box is filled with sand, I am considering either packing bricks in the sand so that I wont have to fight the sand when I need to rake charcoal in or just making a top layer of clay which do yall think would be best?

A top layer of clay would probably be fine.

Just now, JHCC said:

A top layer of clay would probably be fine.

great that's really good to hear, well, im gonna get off for now and start making my anvil ring

Have fun!

I certainly did lol, it was great to finally be able to make that baby ring, its been almost 2 weeks since the last time I had forged any that's honestly the longest I have gone without forging

You know a bag of the really cheap clay kitty litter would fill a lot of space in a forge...

im actually considering that lol but sand was the simplest thing to use at least until I could get time to take a trip to get some lol

14 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

You know a bag of the really cheap clay kitty litter would fill a lot of space in a forge...

 

Sand was simpler than dirt?  Are you on the coast or barrier islands?

no lol, im about 15 minutes from Kinston North Carolina, but put it this way the place I actually live in is called the Sandhill Township, and honestly there is maybe 5 or 6 inches of actual Dirt and then it is nothing but sand

25 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

Sand was simpler than dirt?  Are you on the coast or barrier islands?

 

I'm about 15 minutes from Mexico and can find adobe "soil" as well as source old adobe for upcycling.

5 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

I'm about 15 minutes from Mexico and can find adobe "soil" as well as source old adobe for upcycling.

lucky you, it isn't called Sandhill for the heck of it lol

I've met the grandparents and great grandparents of friends out here that when they told you they built their own house they mean that they made their own adobe bricks out back and built it "from the ground up".

So 3" of clay of a 8" box is 3/8 or just shy of 40%. Even if we are talking a 1/2 is acualy sand or silt 20% clay is still in the Adobe brick making range. Mixing your clay with sand and some ash to make mud pies would make a nice material for a forge. As clinker dosnt stick to Adobe nerve as well as it sticks to vitrified clay. And I thought I had trouble with overthinking this. 

What was I saying about kids? Buy the kid books. And buy the kid books and all he dose is eat the @&$!! Covers!

 

9 hours ago, Charles R. Stevens said:

So 3" of clay of a 8" box is 3/8 or just shy of 40%. Even if we are talking a 1/2 is acualy sand or silt 20% clay is still in the Adobe brick making range. Mixing your clay with sand and some ash to make mud pies would make a nice material for a forge. As clinker dosnt stick to Adobe nerve as well as it sticks to vitrified clay. And I thought I had trouble with overthinking this. 

What was I saying about kids? Buy the kid books. And buy the kid books and all he dose is eat the @&$!! Covers!

Nope, Im a readaholic lol

That is my final product what do y'all think, and yeah I still need to get the dried clay off of the right side ledge

Is it doing what you need it too?  As I teach in class I tell them when they come up and ask me if their S hook is "right" I will tell them:  "If you like it; it's perfect!  If you don't like it; it's horribly horribly wrong!"  (If they can give me some criteria: "Will it be strong enough?, "How do I make it more symmetrical?", etc; then I can tell them if it's "right" and how to fix it if not.  Part of the class is learning to deal with problems working how steel.  I allow some categories of problems to occur to show the class how to fix them when they happen to other people.  The dreaded C hook is fairly common and they are upset until I point out that we are twisting the shaft and so just stop the twist with the hooks in opposition...)

I see ash and charming... so the question is how did it work?

 

1 hour ago, ThomasPowers said:

Is it doing what you need it too?  As I teach in class I tell them when they come up and ask me if their S hook is "right" I will tell them:  "If you like it; it's perfect!  If you don't like it; it's horribly horribly wrong!"  (If they can give me some criteria: "Will it be strong enough?, "How do I make it more symmetrical?", etc; then I can tell them if it's "right" and how to fix it if not.  Part of the class is learning to deal with problems working how steel.  I allow some categories of problems to occur to show the class how to fix them when they happen to other people.  The dreaded C hook is fairly common and they are upset until I point out that we are twisting the shaft and so just stop the twist with the hooks in opposition...)

For the most part yes, I was able to get to the steel between orange and dark yellow fairly consistently, and I was able to get it up to a really bright yellow heat a few times tho it was inconsistent.

44 minutes ago, Charles R. Stevens said:

I see ash and charming... so the question is how did it work?

 

 

Just now, Dillion Brian Grant said:

For the most part yes, I was able to get to the steel between orange and dark yellow fairly consistently, and I was able to get it up to a really bright yellow heat a few times tho it was inconsistent.

 The only issue is i think I need to make the tuyere wall even with the trench wall because I can only get about 1/3-1/2 of the fire pit bright yellow/ almost white

What I see is the trench is all the way down to the tuyere. You need a bowl, in this case it is flat sided, with the ends loping up too the hearth serface. That is 3-4" above the tuyere. From the hearth surface make two parallel mounds. So the steel goes in at hearth hight and their is fuel piled over it. Only expect an area 6" or so to reach forging/welding heat. 

Just now, Charles R. Stevens said:

What I see is the trench is all the way down to the tuyere. You need a bowl, in this case it is flat sided, with the ends loping up too the hearth serface. That is 3-4" above the tuyere. From the hearth surface make two parallel mounds. So the steel goes in at hearth hight and their is fuel piled over it. Only expect an area 6" or so to reach forging/welding heat. 

I don't mean to be a nuisance but by any chance would you be able to draw out what you are meaning because I'm really confused

Not at all, your confusion helps me to learn to explained it beter, let me feed the missus. Then I will get to it

1 minute ago, Charles R. Stevens said:

Not at all, your confusion helps me to learn to explained it beter, let me feed the missus. Then I will get to it

Lol well it's good to hear that I am not being a nuisance, and no problem

So the tuyere is blue, and the dotted line is the hearth top. Again only expect to heat only 6" or so of steel. 

And the yellow is the hot spot. 

Thanks alot sir, wish me luck bout to be back to the forge lol

We'll y'all after multiple fires and some good fun, I decided I would continue my work on the knife I had been working on before I decided to change my forge, and my forge can definately get hot enough, I stuck the knife in to begin normalizing it, and in about 2 minutes I took it back out and it had burned to pieces  bad fire bad fire