I'm new and still learning and researching.  I don't get here as often as I should but do when I can.  I'm hoping to get some insight from anyone who has some experience or an opinion.  If I purchase or build a forge what internal shape would be best?  From what I've learned so far if the body is round and if the burner is set up right it will swirl the flame/heat making it more efficient than a square body.  My main use will be knives but also plan on some scroll work.  Thank in advance for any help.  

A D or mailbox shape works well. Cylindrical forges either lack a flat floor or when a floor is finally made it's a D shaped forge. I'm thinking planning of a D saves time and energy.

Frosty The Lucky.

Since you didnt post your forge question in the forge section, which is subdivided into solid fuel/gas etc sections I have no idea what you are building. Scrolls may not fit a small gas forge. but I figure that may be gas anyway, so I will relocate you post to where it belongs.

If you read through the Forges 101 Thread you might at least get some more concrete questions that we can answer?

I think most knife makers prefer a forge that the flame doesn't hit the work directly.

Pnut

18 hours ago, Steve Sells said:

Since you didnt post your forge question in the forge section, which is subdivided into solid fuel/gas etc sections I have no idea what you are building. Scrolls may not fit a small gas forge. but I figure that may be gas anyway, so I will relocate you post to where it belongs.

Thanks for moving the post.  I'm still trying to learn the layout here.  

6 hours ago, Mikey98118 said:

If you read through the Forges 101 Thread you might at least get some more concrete questions that we can answer?

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.  I've gone through a lot of the 101 thread, very good reading.  I'm still getting use to the layout here so give me time.  I'm not use to so many categories and subcategories.

On 2/24/2021 at 9:39 AM, Tooln said:

My main use will be knives but also plan on some scroll work.  Thank in advance for any help.  

Most people think of scrolls as done all at once; this tends to be true with cold bending in machines, but not in hot bent scrolls; these are usually hot bent in a machine or by hand, and then the flat bar or round bar, that ends in a small scroll end, is reheated and further bent in a larger spiral form. Thus, a special forge shape isn't needed, and a knife makers forge will suffice.

Clamshell forges are good for scrolls as they are usually 2D.  Getting a 1' diameter scroll that also projects 1' will be difficult to get in a knifemakers forge.

You could as easily say that no single gas forge design is likely to be perfect for heating stock for scrolls. I built a clam shell forge for scroll work, and it was limited too. Any forge that can accommodate all the stock to bend a large scroll in one heat is going to be a gas hog.

Since I have a tube forge with stacked bricks for a front door; I have been known to pull the bricks away from the forge an inch and use the slot to heat 2D shapes for working. Not as efficient as being in the forge but better than working cold!

I'm not sure that any gas forge is going to serve as well as a coal fired forge at wrought iron work. Only that the proverbial canary doesn't need more fumes, and that we don't need to make another generation of sick old birds

I've seen a couple box forges with doors on both sides and an opening on each end that would probably work for some ornamental work and would be able to accommodate larger scrolls but truthfully you can't beat solid fuel for localized heating. Without mechanization heating an entire scroll seems kinda pointless to me anyway. 

Pnut