got the rotor from a buddy's shops scrap pile. nice and free. offered him 5 bucks for it acted like I insulted him haha 

4 hours ago, Charles R. Stevens said:

I had to decide between iron horses and flesh and blood horses about 20 years ago. Flesh and blood wone out. 

 

horses are cool. never met one that didn't like me. 

4 hours ago, Daswulf said:

Now you need to figure out your T pipe. 

what's a t pipe? 

 

made a quick pipe from one of the drawers I took out of the box to open it up. rolled it round a table leg and welded it up. cut a slot on top and heated it with map gas (not to hot but I wouldent want to touch it ) and formed it to the rotor hole. it's kinda leaky air wise but I'm not worried bout it. from what I've read you gotta vent some air from a hair dryer anyways cus it's to much air

For bottom blast forges you want a T pipe. Think of a T on its side. The top attaches to the bottom of the rotor. The bottom is the ash dump which will get either a flap cap or slide open cap to seal it but allow it to be opened to dump the ashes that will accumulate. And the middle horizontal pipe is your air inlet. 

Doesn't have to be fittings. It could be exhaust pipe cut and welded up. 

easy enough. sure I could find pipe laying round. thanks for the heads up on that 

I used to get my larger pipe fittings at the local ReStore for about a tenth the new cost---Of course they don't have to be new and gas pipe fittings are generally not as crudded up used as water pipe fittings---especially out here where we have "rocks in the water"  (grew some beautiful crystals in the water pot on top of the wood stove, selenite in my educated opinion...)

This is also the sort of thing I keep an eye open for at the scrapyard, doesn't hurt to have extra ones to hand...

The ash dump also makes a fast and easy way to cut down air if you blower overpowers your forge---a little baling wire to hold it open and you waste a lot of excess air.

cool. i should be able to finish it tomorrow. even if I gotta buy pipe it's still alot cheaper then buying a forge. 

quick question, I could not really get an answer reading around but what is the normal operating temps of a forge anyways? I know its not gunna be exactly a certain temp but what would be the average or the norm really? 

If it's working right you should be able to "burn" your steel if you dont pay attention to it.  well, even that varies with carbon content in the steel .... somewhere around 2500-2700F or so. Haven't been able to get a temp reading on mine. I'm sure someone with more scientific knowledge could give you a better answer lol. 

Really it all depends on getting the forge working right with proper air/ fuel management. 

Most solid fuel forges will get to forge welding temps if designed and blown correctly; that around 2300 degF You will generally be working 1200 to 1600 degF or higher!

(real wrought iron likes to be worked at temps higher than A36 will burn at!)

this numbers where exactly what I was lookin for thanks guys. it gives me a decent idea where I should be at so I know if it's doin it right haha. wonder if those harbor frieght temp guns will read that high?..

Generally you need to learn it by eye and by arm; the color and the softness under the hammer will tell you when you are doing it right.

It's usually best to work at as high a temperature as you can with mild steel.  High carbon/high alloy steels have specific forging ranges. I cam into smithing through bladesmithing and so it's a struggle for me to work mild as hot as it should be as those voices in the back of my head are always screaming "TOO HOT FOR BLADE STEELS!"

love me some knifes. used to have a nice collection (long story) only got a couple of swords and some pocket knifes now. had a beautiful hand forged midevil style dagger. miss that thing. pearl inlay handle, gold plated crossguard.... thing was nuts. wish I had a picture of it

The description makes me wonder if it was "Medieval Style"  BTW how much do you think a medieval sword should weigh?  (A using/battle sword, not a bearing sword or parade sword)

my dagger definitely was for show not use haha 

 

what kind of midevil sword we talking? broadsword? long sword? claymore? simple short sword probably bout 3-5 pounds. nice thick claymore probably bout 10

trained with useing swords as a teenager

If you want a good shortcut to learning about smithing there is a good local school for you: Arc and Flame. Also the local branch of the New York Designer Blacksmiths is active and meets on the third Sat of each month.

I found arc and flame on Google when I looked for local black smith shops planning on attending some of there courses. glad to hear they are good

I'll look into the designer blacksmiths that sounds good. we're abouts upstate are you? just wonderin if your anywhere close to me 

Here is a thread regarding quote's, might save the mods from editing your posts.

 

yea I read that. I'm coming from a very quote heavy fourm so it's a habit I gotta kick

A nice feature here is, you can highlight a small portion of the post and a quote this button pops up click on it (like this).

2 hours ago, boattlebot said:

I gotta kick

 

that helps emensly thanks for the tip 

OK for about 1000 years in Europe a battle sword averaged around 2.2 to 2.5 pounds (early medieval to Renaissance)

Many replica blades are WAY TOO HEAVY as they commonly do not include fullers and distal tapers as those are more difficult to make in the factory.  Remember that scene in "13th Warrior" where Antonio Banderas' character could not swing a 2-3 pound viking sword so he grinds off the hardened edges to make a "better" sword?  That's the sort of thing we are fighting here!

As a funny coincidence? a good weight for a Japanese Katana is also about 2.2 to 2.5 pounds.  I have had many people explain to me that European swords were "sharpened crowbars" and Japanese swords were light and fast.  Odd in that Japanese swords were thicker than European swords and weighed about the same....Of course they met different use cases most of the time...

never saw that movie. im used to wall hangers and trainer swords. only used a real use katana once (cutting those straw mats) 

altho i found this really funny, was playing dragon age inquision (still playing it but still) the blacksmiths were holding fully finished swords about 4 feet over and anvil and just hitting it with a hammer haha. i know video game still made me laugh for a solid 10 min

The more you learn here the more things you will be able to pick out of the fantasy stuff that's just not accurate. Or even be able to know the parts in fif that they dont show you. Even know a good video from bad on yt. Learn here or with a local person or group, take that knowledge to the forge and try it out then come back and reread and see how you did. Or relearn pointers, or ask questions, then try again. It's great fun. 

I'm really looking foward to it. can't wait to light a fire in the forge I'm building. didn't get much done to it today becuase weather made it unbearable in my shop

I know the feeling. I have a fair tomorrow and been gradually feeling more and more social week but had to go work in the shop still to get stuff made to fill the table. Between the heat and feeling like garbage it's been rough. I didn't get nearly as much as I wanted made but enough. Thankfully the fair is indoors tomorrow. 

what side of pa are you on? I lived on the east side for 5 years and near philly for 2ish. my grandma is still there

a fair sounds fun atleast

Southwestern. The fair is in the Southside of Pittsburgh. I live 45min south of pittsburgh.