Hey guys, first time posting here.

Although I've forged my own ring, I am an amateur when it comes to forging. My ring was made using my friends forge which runs well.

About a month ago, I picked up an entire forging setup that allowed me to get started by myself. It did come with a regulator for the gas bottle, but the burners too have the air intake and regulators.

I picked up a tunnel firebrick forge which the previous guy used for blade and sword smithing. Now, me being new, I think I've overlooked some things because it's just not working as I expect.

The forge is around 44cm deep and around 12cm tall, 12cm wide. It's a steel frame that is the skeleton for holding the fire bricks in place. Once I got it home, I lined it with the Vitcas bio soluble fire blanket (1230°C rated) with only 1 burner and (naively) thought that was it.

I saw that the wool was degrading after only a few days of light use and shrinking around. Considering it's friction fit, it's no surprise.

I installed the 2nd burner and whilst I did make a little knife, the forge is inefficient. It gets too hot, has dragons breath, spluttering of the burners, etc.

I am a bit lost so I've attached my forge pics to give context and am in need of some advice. With the haul, I got refractory cement and some other things (also attached) but not sure how I can best make an efficient forge.

So, I think I have several issues:

• The forge is getting too hot, disintegrating the blanket as it's above the rated temperature

• The burners aren't sealed, either drawing more air in due to the Venturi effect, or letting heat escape

• The friction fit of the blankets is just not enough to keep it sealed and well insulated

• I don't use a door, but even if I block it up and leave 2cm of gap at the bottom, I get dragons breath again

• I am not sure what air mixture to use or psi to be running my burners on

My goal here is to make some rings but also forge blades. It is a bit long for my use case but I want to get this running perfectly. I am a complete novice and researching this just confuses me more as there are so many ways of doing it, some even conflicting with how and how not to build it.

Happy to answer any more questions if needed to paint a clearer picture. Thanks in advance

First, I have to state that I’m not an expert on gas forges, but I’m sure one of them will be along shortly.

If the burners are 25mm diameter, then you have probably twice the burners for a forge of that volume. If you can tune the burners down low enough it may work well, but that could be a challenge using naturally aspirated burners on a long narrow forge.

Take some time (it will take a lot) and read through the this topic:

You can just skim through, but there is extremely valuable information there. If nothing else, it will give you insight on more troubling shooting and more pointed questions. There is a lot of information there from true experts and you can even see some evolution over time. Unfortunately, at least one of the experts is no longer with us

Keep it fun,

David

Blanket is only rated to 2,246 deg. F and the tip of your flame will exceed 3,000 deg. F if running properly. You need enough length in your chamber for the flame to develop without impinging on a fame face that can't take the heat. You need better liner material, supports for your burners so they don't just rest on the furnace roof. Some "dragon's breath" is actually preferable, particularly if you are forging high carbon blades or forge welding. One way of dealing with a long forge like this one is to use a multi-port burner (ribbon burner). These can be run off NA burners like yours, but tuning correctly takes some experimentation.