Howdy, signing in from Houston

[AdamTheSaint]

Hey guys, stumbled on this board few months back when my oldest boy started to mention he wanted a forge to make... you guessed it, knives.

Been reading and lurking, soaking up whatever information I can, sorting through the meat and cutting the fat that I can make out.

I know enough about forges to comfortably say I don't know much, so don't be shy about correcting me when it's warranted if I give less than stellar advice.

 

Anyhow, we were gonna build this thing together, father son project sorry if thing, then he admitted he doesn't really care about the actual act of building the forge after a few hours and left to go chat with his girlfriend haha kids today, same as yesterday hahah

So I've been building this thing a little here, a little there the past few weeks finally. Using a slim 1/4 stainless steel keg (it's mine, literally, and not by theft or deposit) , well, I'll get more into it once it's done.

Welder/fabricator by trade, my passions are my Harleys and chopping them up, learning whatever I can about most anything, my family (even if the oldest bailed on me haha) and being righteous in the eyes of my brothers. I'm always busy doing something. Was a single father with full custody for a bit over a couple of years, got myself the woman back that I should've married instead of who I actually did and lifes pretty fantastic. 

I probably don't look like the average member here , but I'm hoping I'm accepted into the community because, honestly, blacksmithing/blade-smithing/forge building wasn't even on my radar until I looked into it for my son, and now honestly, it's been consuming a large portion of my time and attention. I can't stop, too much to learn how to do, a whole new world was revealed to me thanks to this forum. 

 

Anyhow, see y'all down the road.

 

 

Edited February 6, 2019 by AdamTheSaint
Sneak peak of the forge body added

[Kevin Olson]

Adam. Welcome to the addiction of blacksmithing and to the Iforge Iron Brotherhood/Sisterhood. Keep goin on and maybe your boy will see the passion too. Hard to get past the high school girls though. :-)  Keep doin kool stuf and he will notice. I'm glad you got your sweety back.  And dont worry how you look cuz we have some interesting folk here. In the end, its just a hammer on hot iron and making beautiful things!

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Welcome to IFI... When you get around to building a coal forge with a hand crank blower, just remember like a Harley if the blower isn't leaking oil, it's out of it.

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard Adam, glad to have you. Playing with fire and hitting things with hammers is a lot more fun than measurig cutting, bending, tacking, welding. Once you start beating sparkly hot steel the boy's likely to be more interested. Especially if he learns girls like hmmered steel bangles. 

The forge looks good, what kind of burner you putting on it?

Frosty The Lucky.

[Kevin Olson]

That's like a Rolls Royce. If its not leaking its empty. I know this cuz my buddy has one

[AdamTheSaint]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone, I like it here. 

 

Thanks for the kind words Kevin. He's a good kid, just more into the artistic side of things (even though I see art in everything, even the science) and not into "how does it work" thing. Trying to break him of that thought process, knowing how it works makes your paint strokes go further I like to think. He's pumped about starting though.

 

11 hours ago, Irondragon Forge & Clay said:

Welcome to IFI... When you get around to building a coal forge with a hand crank blower, just remember like a Harley if the blower isn't leaking oil, it's out of it.

Thank you, and that's gospel for sure. My shovel chopper in the back of that pic I posted doesn't leak oil, it sweats freedom haha

11 hours ago, Frosty said:

Playing with fire and hitting things with hammers is a lot more fun than measurig cutting, bending, tacking, welding. Once you start beating sparkly hot steel the boy's likely to be m The forge looks good, what kind of burner you putting on it?

Thank you Frosty, means alot. I'm enjoying it myself and I haven't even actually heated anything yet haha

I built (2) modified 3/4" Reil EZ burners initially, then I got to thinking of everything a whole new way. A forge, like my 40 year old Harley for example, is a living thing with a soul and personality all its own, so what might work great in a forge with similar dimensions, might not work worth a darn in mine. Could all be hocus pocus, but I'm gonna explore it in that manner, with the science learned from guys like you of course, and experiment with several different designs. Which ever works the best in this forge will stay there, and the others will get a different designed forge, since I know I'll need a few.  I just got done building (2) 3/4" sidearm burners last night. I'll be getting parallel fittings today or tomorrow to build some Z burners also. 

 

I know, I know, it's not the ward. It's what I could get my hands on yesterday last minute. Trying to find the wards locally in case these fittings don't play nice. Today I'll also tig up some stainless burner holders, and then hopefully put my castable in and let it cure. Also designing a door that'll likely be a kiln shelf slid into a slit I cut into the top of that ring around the base, but who knows what will happen between then and now.

[JHCC]

Welcome to IFI! If you haven't yet, please READ THIS FIRST!!!

[AdamTheSaint]

Thank you JHCC. That was actually one of the very first posts I had read a couple of months back and even so, I still forgot to edit and resize my photos. My apologies all, I'll be better about that going  forward.

Edited February 6, 2019 by Mod34
No need to quote the immediately preceding comment.