Heating and forging 2" thick steel

[artisanbikeracks]

Hello, I'm trying to forge out some really thick mild steel 2" into a curling leaf wondering any tricks for heating it, I was trying with a coal and charcoal forge with a pretty good size pile and just couldn't get it past a dark red... Any ideas would be helpful...

[Glenn]

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[Glenn]

Look at the fire you use for heating 1/2 inch square stock. To heat 1 inch square, you need by volume, 1/2 x 1/2 horizontally by 1/2 x 1/2 vertically, or 4 TIMES the amount of steel and 4 TIMES the amount of heat. It also takes 4 TIMES as long to heat the metal (or so it seems). From 1 inch square to 2 inch square multiple again and you get 16 times the volume of steel. This requires 16 times the amount of heat !!

The numbers may not be exact, but it sure takes LOT more fire and heat, and much more AIR. Caution, when you get it hot it gives off much more radiant heat so wear protective clothing.

[Wim]

The other thing to consider Artie, is once you have got it nice and hot, what are you gonna do with it. You need a big hammer, and a buddy to sledge for you, and all the tools, fullers, cutters, in other words all your ducks in a row.
My forge works very well, I can get 1" material up to welding temperature, but 2" round to make a hardy took me ages, and then I didn't have the right tools and a sledge to do the operations.
You could cut the thick section with a grinder into thinner material first.
Let me know if you ve come right.
Wim:)

[ThomasPowers]

Without letting us know the details on your forge we can't even make a guess if it would work for the big stuff. How big is the firepot, tuyere, blower?

I have a small forge that would burn out if you tried to work 2" stuff on it and I have a large forge that a fellow burnt a piece of RR rail in two heating it. Can you tell which one I was using yesterday?

As noted you will need a crew to work that large a stock or a good large powerhammer. manually I would suggest a minimum pf 3: one to hold and 2 to sledge.

You will need a large anvil as well. Working large steel on a small anvil can wreck the anvil! You would want at least a 250# anvil and be sure to keep it over the center of the anvil and not out on the heel!.

I own a powerhammer but if I was working 2" stock I would visit a friend that had a larger one!

[steponmebbbboom]

2 inch by what? for a leaf?

Thats one mother of a leaf!

if this is going to be a feature on a production piece you might want to invest in a gas forge and a treadle hammer if you are going to work stock that big. but a leaf?

how about forging some flatbar stock and welding it on later? might save you some time.

[artisanbikeracks]

Thanks for all the response, me and a friend took turns with a sludge and we switched from my small coal forge to a propane speedy forge, went through about 4 gallons of propane and flattened out part of it... I think to save some fuel and time I'm going to go with steponmebbbboom's advice and get some flat bar and make the curling leaf and then weld it into the large stock.