LukeD Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 Hello everyone. Hope you all are well. I am new here and just signed up this morning. I have been intrigued about blacksmithing and knife making for quite a few years. I have seen some Blacksmithing demonstrations a few different times and have always thought it would be a very gratifying hobby to do. I have been doing some reading and looking around to make a small charcoal forge and have found a few different designs and one I am going to try and make to start out with. my main focus that I would like to do is knife making mainly for gifts, friends and so on. I have seen how the Railroad spike knives have become very popular and I have a large availability to them. I know they are not the most high quality knife making material out there but I believe they would be a good starting point for me. I am going to be doing some more reading on here and also looking for some tools to use. I have a good place to set up a small forge out at my parents house that is covered and has a concrete floor as well with running water close also. hopefully I will be able to get started soon and I will probably be asking some questions so please bear with me as I learn and I am looking forward to learning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 Welcome to Glenn's block party ( we have out grown his porch and have spilled out into the street). Do yourself a favor and read the pinned posts in the various sections. It is recommended you learn basic forge work befor taking on knives. Leaves, hooks, fire tools, tongs etc. not only will you have the skill you will have the tools as well. The knifemaking section has a very good "knife making class" descusion. Pretty extensive coverage of the basics. I would recomend Steve Sells book, it's a great primer, covering the same material in a clearer and expanded manner. $50 knife book is also good for expanding you mind. Unfortunantly the dark side is calling me... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeD Posted November 27, 2017 Author Share Posted November 27, 2017 Thank you much Charles. I have been reading some of the pinned posts in the forge section and also looking at beginning projects like tongs and so on and that will help also. I will end up trying to do some small work first before diving right into knives at first. there is a lot of information here that is for sure. hopefully I can figure it out to get started. I have the $50 knife book that I bought years ago and have it somewhere that ill have to dig out and read through it also. really looking forward to getting started. I might try and start building my forge this weekend while I have nothing else to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 Learning good forge skills will save you hours of grinding/filing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeD Posted November 28, 2017 Author Share Posted November 28, 2017 Charles. Is there any particular threads one u suggest reading through Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted November 28, 2017 Share Posted November 28, 2017 Welcome aboard Luke glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the gang live within visiting distance. Good threads to start with are "Getting started" (or whatever it's called my memory for such details is lacking.) The Site's search engine stinks. Instead use your favorite say . . . Google and include Iforge in the search terms. Charles has started a few very useful threads, one describing the what's and whys of side draft forges and another describing similar about vertically mounted RR rail anvils. The side blast forge is a primo charcoal forge and the JABOD is fast easy and . . . cheap. What you wish to make will have a lot to do with what sections will be helpful to read, though none of them are a waste of time. Unless Admin started a "troll pen" section. Trolls aren't terribly common here though we get a visit now and again. If you get trolled don't engage them, if they don't go away leave them to the curmudgeons. Enthusiastically hearty troll thrashings are meat and drink to us. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeD Posted November 28, 2017 Author Share Posted November 28, 2017 Thanks Frosty. just added my location. the forge I plan to build is a Side Blast 55. my parents used to burn trash in old 55gal drums. my dad passed around 10 years ago and so its just my mom there now and at 78 she is still very active. a few years ago while burning some trash in the trash barrels she caught the property on fire and burnt on old building to the ground. so needless to say it freaked her out a little and now she does not burn trash at all. so there are still barrels there that are in good shape so im planning on building a forge out of them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted November 28, 2017 Share Posted November 28, 2017 A 55 gallon drum works well. If you cut it so it forges an 8" pan. I recomend acualy cutting an opening that is about 2/3 of the way aroun and curving back up to at least the second ring. You can get fancy and split the top and curve it back to form a cone but the flat top works fine. A hole and a 10-12" stack added on to that. I recomend finding a piece of 3/4" schedual 40 pipe for a tuyere, if you make the hole in the side of the drum so that the tuyer sits 2" of the bottom, it will then be 5" from the top of the hearth. I recomend filling the tub with an Adobe soil (clasic English forges used ash and cinder from the burnt coal). Either cut another barrel to sit it on or fabricate legs or a table so the top of the hearth is at your anvil hight. This particular bed pump makes an effective air supply for charcoal and soft coal, and at $10 is affordable. JHCC has also built a JOBOD forge, and has experimented with different fills and tuyeres. I recomend either the Asian/African style with the two humps or the Viking style with one hump to help contain charcoal, as with a coal forge you would leave about an inch head space between the rim and fill, using the unburnt coal to bank the fire (this also coke said the coal) this dosnt work with charcoal as all your fuel will be on fire. I personaly like my bellows on my dominant hand as I am already using the tongs to manipulate the stock in my off hand. Any othher questions I can answer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeD Posted November 29, 2017 Author Share Posted November 29, 2017 Charles. thanks for the links and threads. im still reading and trying to learn and some of the lingo is tough to understand but im getting there. the good thing is my family comes from a construction background so I have a lot of available materials such as pipe for the tuyere (took me a google search to figure out what that was) I have a small shop vac that is like a 1 gallon vac that I am going to see if I can change the direction on the air to use for an air source. if not I have a small battery operated air mattress air pump that I might use for a while until I figure out something a little better. as for the fire pot. I have read a lot use old brake rotors. I assume I could just cut a hole in the top of the drum large enough to put the brake rotor in it upside down. I also saw where a lot put a pipe off of the bottom of the fire pot for ash to settle in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted November 29, 2017 Share Posted November 29, 2017 A shop vac is WAY too much air unless you're running a cupola melter. I've been using 12v DC mattress inflaters in forges for years and they're WAY too much air but they're easy to throttle. I usually just aim them so only part of the output hits the tuyere. I use one full bore to speed up brush pile burns and not little piles. I can burn 10' dia. by 6' high without a special permit. Yes, put your air nozzle up off the bottom of the fire pot depression so ash and clinker won't interfere. See Charles charts, he's your side blast man. If you're going to burn charcoal go side blast forge, it'll burn much less fuel in a more controlable manner. A garage sale blow drier provides WAY more air than necessary for most forging work. Honest, you'll end up throttling it one way or another. NO, don't use the heat it just wastes electricity. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted November 29, 2017 Share Posted November 29, 2017 If you're going to use a shop vac, you're going to need some way to either slow it down or dump the extra air. I'm currently using a variable transformer to do the former, but you might check out the gate valve I built out of pallet wood to do the latter: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeD Posted November 29, 2017 Author Share Posted November 29, 2017 30 minutes ago, JHCC said: If you're going to use a shop vac, you're going to need some way to either slow it down or dump the extra air. I'm currently using a variable transformer to do the former, but you might check out the gate valve I built out of pallet wood to do the latter: I thinking something similar to a shut off valve in the pipe going to the fire pot to turn the air down when needed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted November 29, 2017 Share Posted November 29, 2017 That’s also a possibility, but remember that some motors require air flowing through them in order to keep cool. If the airflow is blocked, the motor can overheat and burn out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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