:mad:

I've been forging every staurday since spring and i can't seem to finish a pair of tongs without burning the the steel. I was making a pair of bolt tongs this morning for 1" bar stock that id like to make into candle sticks. I had the reins formed and even pulled off making balls at the ends that looked as good a my store bought pair. I made the twist on the jaw and put back in the fire to take some tool marks out of the boss area and the whole mess went up in a shower of sparks and i ended up with an molten blob of crud on the end of the reins where the twist in jaw was supposed to be.

several hours of what I thought was good work down the drain, and I'd be fibbing if I said it was the first project that ended that way.

Does anyone have advice on how to not burn the steel after youv'e worked it down?

Thanks!

are you using an electric blower? if so turn the air blast down ...I guess your using coal you didn't say

Either too low in the fire, insufficent fuel around the work or too much blast. What you are experiencing is the same basic thing that an acetylene torch does to a piece of steel - heats it to melting and then introduces enough O2 to make it burn.

If it starts burning and you catch it fast enough, you can plunge it in the slack tub and sometimes arrest the burn but you'll have to grind away the oxides before continuing.

keep an eye on it.. or don't let it heat for long.
you can use a dull red heat to remove marks and other small screwups. just lightly hammer it, all your doing is moving the face of the metal not really forging even black usually has enough heat for this

I was using coal, Elkhorn brand to be specific. I started the piece on the student forges which are hand cranked blowers and was doing fine but I had to breakdown my fire so the next class can come in to cold forges and make their own fires. I moved to the demonstration forge in the frot of the barn and it has an electric blower and thats when I made my sparkling puddle of goo. I didn't know the electric blowers would burn your piece up so fast.

Thanks to all who responded. I appreciate the help

yea, just put plug up about half of your blower.

Too much air will do it all the time. The blower should have an air valve or be controllable so you can reduce the air. Otherwise, heat one thing at a time and don't take your eyes off it!!

A good piece of advice I received when I was burning small, thin items was to lay it on top of the fire, not in it. That way, you can keep a good eye on it, and it'll heat up more slowly, thus giving you some breathing space. It works well for me. :)

IForgeIron.com > Lessons in Metalworking > Blacksmithing > LB0007 Seeing colors

If you just want to iron out the wrinkles (planish) in a piece of (mild steel) metal low red to medium red will work, if you want to move metal in forging high orange to yellow works. Choose the color of the heat of your metal as you would choose any other tool for the job at hand.



Planish: to give a smooth finish to (metal) by striking lightly with a smoothly faced hammer or die.

I have had trouble being distracted by shiny objects and burning my work. You always have to watch it. Some things that might help...

1. Have an air gate or rheostat to control the amount of air from the blower.

2. Run your electric blower power through a foot switch so that when you step away from the forge, the air blast goes off. I use a switch that used to be the foot control from a sewing machine.

Steve

2. Run your electric blower power through a foot switch so that when you step away from the forge, the air blast goes off. I use a switch that used to be the foot control from a sewing machine.

Steve

I repair old sewing machines for my wife all the time. That is a great idea as I'm sure my wife has a few extra foot switches.

Thank you and I love this website.:D

MoleDoc....remove the resistor (or rheostat, or whatever it is) inside the foot switch so that it is only "on" or "off". Then wire it up.

I even have a foot switch on a belt grinder so that I can put the work piece in place and then start instead of pushing a piece into a moving disc or belt. It keeps from screwing up a delicate piece when I'm wanting to put a flat surface on a handle scale or something.

Steve

Make the important part of the piece first.... So the jaws if you are making tongs.. That way if you burn them off after the jaw, you can just weld on reins, and if you burn off the jaw, better start over.. But mainly I think you just gotta pay attention. I burn off pieces when I get to talking with people and forget about when my piece went into the fire.

why do I crank my blower?

Lot to be said for hand crankers :)

sometimes it looks real nice and convenient to have a little blower...i mostly see it good for lighting the fire or re-banking it mid stream....but i like to crank, it makes me one with the fire....i still burn stuff...but it is mostly because of my inaccurate placement of the metal or a distraction...it really is strange when i go and use the propane forge after using the coal forge...waiting or the metal to heat up and no coal to move around...and way cleaner...but i digress

Edited September 30, 200817 yr by fat pete

One thing I've learned, don't let your significant other into the forge to help/ watch if you're doing something important. So easy to get distracted even with a hand-crank, let alone an electric.

have a practice with some scrap material which you dont mind being burnt up you will soon get used to the amount of time it takes to heat it basicaly play around and you will get a natural feel for the heating times of diffrent thickness of material.

It's a fire management problem mostly. Try to keep the fire adjusted so that you have just the right amount of heat for your work. A really bright fire is only needed for large irons and/or welding. Even for large irons reheating takes only a little time because there is still lots of stored heat in the piece from the previous heat. So watch your iron VERY carefully when you have a high fire and an already hot iron. It's best to cut your blower off for a while and use the coals without blast till they get too cool to do the work. Of course thin or small irons can burn in an instant if your fire gets just a little overheated... be extra careful with them. Fire management seems about half the skill to me... don't underestimate your need for it.

Or you can build a gas forge It;s faster it;s cleaner it's loweder it's easy to see where the flame is and i have never melt a piece in there !

I have melted a piece in a gas forge just recently and a friend melted an entire billet in his; not too hard if you've tweaked your forge for welding.

One historical suggestion for "timing" once you get a feel for how long a piece takes to heat tie that to a song or something---I tend to use the monk's chhant from Monty Python's "Holy Grail" movie. Also if you are singing or chanting you are not talking to other people and letting your piece burn up from inattention!

The monks chant! Cool. I tend to hum Scotland the Brave while I'm hammering. The tempo is perfect.
Finnr

The song of the munchkins in the wizard of oz always rings in my head while hammering.
Most folks think they are saying "oh wee oh, wee oh". But in reality they are singing to the dead witch.

They sing" Holy One, The Old One"
these things take on a life of their own.
It also makes a good rythym for the mashing of hot iron.