Wood/charcoal forge build questions and request.

[Jeff Pugh]

Hey guys, what's cooking? Metal I hope. So I'm something of a wannabe woodworker who specializes in making scrapwood. Along the way I find I want to burn some metal for woodworking and maybe other purposes. eg.. spokeshave/plane blades, knives, whatnot...

I've messed around a bit with a 'JABOD' with mostly less than awesome results. I did manage to beat a masons jointer into a mostly flat hunk of metal. That and I think I did OK on hardening/tempering a chunk of 1095 I shaped into a rounder plane blade.

So messing around with dirt mound shapes the best I think I've done with is a sort of V trough, like the Whitlox but a single side air source. I have spent some time processing some dirt down to clay and have enough to make something, but I'm not entirely sure what shape to go with.  I had planed to make something like the Whitlox, including putting a multi hole pipe in the bottom but I've seen some commenters suggesting this is actually a poor design.

I'm using wood by the way. Scraps and chunked up limbs from the woods. I have no barrels for making a coal maker, not sure when I'll be able to do that. So I'm currently thinking duel wood/charcoal. Should there actually be any difference whether wood or charcoal in the forge design? Is there any kind of consensus on 'best' wood fired design?

Also on the clay, I should mix something around 1/2 clay or less to 1/2 or more sand, is that right? I see some suggesting up to around 3/4 sand. Should I mix in some grass? I have no funds for perlite or whatever, but I can get plenty of sand, clay and grass. I can make ashes too if need be. I also have a few bricks I could smash up and toss in there if that is good.

InB4 use the search. I used the search, including using google and when I search for wood burning forge the bulk of results are people telling people to use the search. Funny that.

So if ya'll can post up some pics of good wood/charcoal burners that'd be awesome. Or post some links to the premium threads about such, also awesome. Oh one more thing, well probably several but one more I can think of now. Anyone whose worked with cob/clay in forms, what did you do about getting it out of the forms?

Thanks.

Edited June 17, 2022 by Mod30
Double spacing removed

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Welcome from the Ozark mountains. You might not double space your lines. It makes it hard to read and the moderators frown upon it. Have you read through the History of the side blast forge? That should get ya on the right track.

https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/52623-anatomy-and-a-brief-history-of-simple-side-blast-forges/

 

[swedefiddle]

Good Morning Jeff,

I made a wood burning Forge, like the Wit....., using an old Bar-B-Que stand as the mode of transport. I don't bother with cooking the wood into Charcoal, seperately. I use the principle like using Coal to make Coke. It works well for small items.

Neil

[Jobtiel1]

There are always loads of metal barrels at the scrapyard, maybe it's an idea to go there to pick one up and make a charcoal retort? I think it saves you a lot of hassle.

~Jobtiel

[Michael]

I burned lump charcoal in a brake drum forge for years, bottom blast, holes drilled in a plate type tuyere. With practice it got to about a 5 gallon bucket of charcoal for about 2 hours of forge time. You spend a lot of time wetting down the charcoal so the fire doesn't spread too fast. It helps to put a few firebricks in the brake drum to make a narrow fire. 

[Charles R. Stevens]

I second the charcoal retort, especially the kiln style. Short of that a fire to harvest coals and move to your forge is much cooler, working so close to a live fire sucks. 
I don’t recommend a bottom blast for charcoal, but a side blast trench style forge for fuel effecency. 6” deep, 4” wide and about 8” long with the 3/4” schedule 40 tuyere (about 7/8” ID) works well for me. I melt fire bricks on occasion, if you don’t think it will get hot…

look at the charcoal/side blast stickies for a start, if you have any questions after that let me know. 

[ThomasPowers]

Any charcoal on/in the firepot will want to burn; not all of that will contribute to heating metal.  That is why trench forges help slow charcoal use; or if you see some of the ground forges used in 3rd world countries; they are actually quite small---heat is money!  When I forge with charcoal I tend to build a fire in an outdoor firepit and shift coals over to the forge as needed with a shovel I made from shaker screen.  Dig a pile out of the fire, shake to get with of ashes and fines and dump into the forge.  A hand powered air source will really save on charcoal too; most motorized ones are way too much for charcoal!

[natkova]

If forge is designed to be bottom blast why it is supposed to use coal or coke, and why side blast i prefered to charcoal forge 

 

And I noticed firepot need to be shallow for charcoal than for coal.

 

There is picture where to put material when you want to heat it , and I think sweet spot for charcoal and coal are not same.    

Am i right.

Edited August 30, 2022 by Mod30
Remove @name tag

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Yes you are right.

[natkova]

So i don't know Smith that build used bottom blast forge for charcoal and suggested me to use that instead lignite or other coal 

But i like that my fire have clinker breaker which have two purposes.

One is to control air, because European styles clinker breaker I think tend to go up down , and USA one twist.

Ian kinda aiming for hybrid forg if possible to do that.