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I Forge Iron

Plan for my first slab and brick forge


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I dug the clay I use straight out of the ground. I get any rocks out and use it as is. I don't even pick the leafs out. Real charcoal is what I use mostly. It works great. No slag, burns clean and the ash is good to mix with clay for later forges. Briquettes are a poor substitute for lump natural charcoal. 

Pnut

 

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I'm with pnut---I only use lump charcoal, much of which I make in a charcoal retort, write-up here. But you don't have to make your own charcoal.

BTW, there's some interesting threads about using weeds and corncob and all sorts of things as feedstock for charcoal. I think Thomas rakes charcoal out of the woodstove for use in his smithy and there' someone else who uses a wood fire---he doesn't forge while the fire is burning, he rakes the charcoal into the forge firepit as the fire is burning. Can't remember who it is though. There's even a company link removed that builds forges that use wood that you rake the charcoal out to forge with.

Regardless, charcoal will get plenty hot. I don't use bituminous/blacksmith coal, but I live in a place where there are a lot of deadfalls and downed trees so there's plenty of feedstock for making charcoal. Other people may prefer bituminous coal while others like propane. Or an induction forge. In addition to just like charcoal as a fuel, I prefer the smell of woodsmoke to coal/coke, and how quiet burning charcoal is compared to propane. OTOH, I know why people use those other fuels and one of those may work better for you once you know you want to keep forging.

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I built a shovel from gravel shaker screening that I use to scoop up coals from a separate wood fire, shack out the ash and small bits and dump the burning charcoal into the forge.  I prefer not to have the wood smoke and flame in my face while forging and in the summer the fire can be positioned so as to not increase your temps while forging.

But yes I also sieve the ashes from our woodstove and have been known to, with permission, collect charcoal from a structure fire the VFD put out or HS bonfire or ...  Free charcoal is free charcoal and you will use quite a bit forging!

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Sid I tried one of those amazon leaf blowers that looked exactly like that one. It was no good. The variable speed was too variable in that if I set it to a given speed it would fluctuate up and down to the point that I couldn't get a consistent fire with coke. 

With hindsight I could have run it at full chat and added a vent to modulate the air but I lost my rag, binned the lot and bought a forge instead. 

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On 2/24/2020 at 2:40 PM, Legendary_Sid said:

I've seen an air blower amazon link removed do you think something like this would be ok for this style of beginner forge?

Dang, I meant to address this question and I totally forgot in my enthusiasm...

The air supply needed for charcoal is a lot less than you think. I used a hand air mattress pump with the JAGOD, but I've since moved up to a handcranked blower a buddy gave me. There are people who use blow dryers and to control the amount of air, they moves the blow dryer away from the mouth of the tuyere (that's the pipe that sends the air into the fire). A side blast forge has the tuyere coming in the side of the firepit, while a bottom blast forge has the tuyere attached at the bottom.

As I understand it, and in very general terms, a forge using charcoal will perform best as a side blast forge while a forge using bituminous coal is usually a bottom blast. But this is not always so.

Also, generally, charcoal forges need less air than you think, but the air needs to be going to the right place. That's where the learning comes in. One of the nice things about a JABOD/JAGOD is that you can tear it apart and re-arrange bits to suit your needs.

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