tardster Posted January 14, 2019 Share Posted January 14, 2019 Ok here's my first forge build, I know I need to put some castable around the opening but I wasn't sure if I was going to put the front on or not. I made it out of an old 11 gallon portable air tank that I didn't need any more, it looked beefier than the old 40lb propane bottle I have so I went with it. I don't know if there is any advantage of painting it or not but I was just going to leave it as it is and just use it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 14, 2019 Share Posted January 14, 2019 Are you twisting railing pickets? Looks like a long forge; what do you plan to forge that needs that length of heat? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tardster Posted January 14, 2019 Author Share Posted January 14, 2019 Thomas, its only 12 inches deep from the front hole to the rear hole. I mainly just want to try to make some knives nothing very long at all. I figured if I made a knife 5 or 6 inches long by the time you put a tang on it you'd need close to 10-12 inches of room so I went with that. I'm not sure what the cubic inch area of it is, I haven't quite figured that one out yet. I don't know if it would work but I was going to use one of my wife's clothes rulers to measure the curved part and multiply that by the depth but I could be wrong on that one. It's been awhile since I had to do any of that type of figuring lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 14, 2019 Share Posted January 14, 2019 Great size; I just didn't see a side pic with scale. We get quite a few people building huge forges "because they want to make swords". They are not too happy when we tell them that you ONLY want to heat what you can work before going cold and with sword alloys that's a limited amount, say 6" for hand work. Heating more degrades the metal and makes for a poorer blade. Clear evidence that they are building before they are finding out what they need to build. There is an OLD IT cartoon about a team of software engineers and one says "Everyone can start coding; I'll go get the specs!" BTW how many cubic inches is that burner good for? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tardster Posted January 14, 2019 Author Share Posted January 14, 2019 Yea I don't have any plans for anything like that for a very long time, I want to get halfway decent at making knives before I jump into anything that big lol. As much as I love the looks of Damascus I plan on waiting on that too, let me see if I can make a knife or 12 out of railroad spikes before I get into using the good stuff. From what I was able to find somewhere in the 300-350 cubic inch range I believe. They say its 130000 btu if that helps, I did a web search and found a few people who said their forges were 20 lb propane bottles and they worked pretty good for them, of course I'm sure there are some that didn't have as good of luck with them but I haven't found any bad issues so far anywhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 14, 2019 Share Posted January 14, 2019 Want to learn how to do things right before you rush in where Angels fear to tread? WHO ARE YOU and what have you done with the beginning smith Tardster! Now I won't agree with RR Spikes; I'd suggest getting a low miles coil spring from a pickup and cutting it down the sides into a bunch of ( pieces so you can learn with an alloy suitable for knives Also allows you to practice heat treating and breaking blades to see what you did right and what you did wrong. After you get good with that alloy you can add another alloy into your skillset. (Practicing baking pies using Mud doesn't teach you a lot about making them from fruit and if you do succeed using the proper materials you have something you can eat!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tardster Posted January 14, 2019 Author Share Posted January 14, 2019 LMAO... I'm 48 and was in the army for 10 years so I try to do things the right way or as close as I can get, work smarter not harder lol. I can see what your saying, maybe I'll order up a couple of those 1095 billets of amazon and give them a go or do you think that's getting ahead of myself? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 14, 2019 Share Posted January 14, 2019 Learn to manage your work piece temperatures and hammer till you get a nice smooth surface and no too hot/too cold issues; then go to the 1095! Coil spring is generally around 5160 and so good, cheap blade steel to practice with---you really want to break a lot of your early ones to see if you are getting it right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey98118 Posted January 14, 2019 Share Posted January 14, 2019 Before you turn that burner on and heat up the forge, I suggest that you break apart whatever refractory you filled the burner portal with. Few burners can combust their fuel completely in a primary flame envelope (using only the air/fuel gas mixture coming down their mixing tubes); all others need a secondary air source. Secondary air is drawn into the forge, through the burner port, by being induce from the flame. The only thing worse than excessive secondary air is none at all. When running, gas forges have internal atmospheres above the pressure of ambient air. No secondary air can enter the forge from exhaust openings; only from the burner portal, where induction can bring it in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tardster Posted January 15, 2019 Author Share Posted January 15, 2019 i can do that mikey, should there be any room around the bottom of the burner thats inside the forge. the flare at the end of the burner is tight with the kaewool and castable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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