Gunsmiths do this still alot. Very practical it is.

I've done some very simple tasks; it isn';t as easy as it looks. Just about managed to forge an eye about 1/2" diameter on the end of a rod.

Neil

I have a small portable forge I made with firebricks on a workmate. The 4 side firebricks form a box which sits on a 3" thick firebrick base. The base sits on the workmate. Several long gear type hose clamps wrap around the bricks to hold the sides in place and steel brackets hold the sides down to the base. Fire area is roughly 6 x 10" and 4" deep. The bottom brick has a hole for a 1" pipe that acts like a tuyere. I use a steel mesh grate over it. Charcoal (lump, not briquet) is used as fuel. The air blast to the pipe is from an ex-dishwasher centrifugal blower in a metal housing, speed is controlled by a lamp dimmer. This forge is superb for small work, and I have since built a steel "stack" box over the bricks for work needing a deeper fire. Heat is not a problem – I had some 1/4 x 1 1/2" bar in last time I used it, and didn;t pay attention for a couple of minutes, with air blast full on. When I looked in, drips of molten iron were falling off the end.

Charcoal is plenty hot enough, cheap, available and quiet and has very little smoke and a pleasant smell. Works great for me for small forge work and for melting small amounts of aluminum and brass.

I have tried propane but found it noisy and expensive and not very hot. Have also used bituminous (blacksmith) coal and found it needed a lot of managing and was smoky and smelly when blast was off, but there was plenty of heat with the blast on, once the coal had coked for a while. Good bituminous coal is not easily available where I am and costs a small fortune.

Charcoal it is then.

JD

Edited By Jeff Dayman on 09/03/2012 18:09:27

Articles always welcome.

regards David

Over here in Hungary it is Marcius tiszanort -Fifteenth March-(one of the two National public holidays) so all the old Magyar re-enactment mob were holding a ‘fair’ or a ‘fete’. One geezer was there dressed up in old Magyar togs. He was forging and selling miniature horse shoes.

He was hot forging these things. His forge was about the size of a phone book mounted on a folding table. It had three lumps of fire brick and was heated from below by bottled gas. It seemed to have coal in it but these were ceramic chips. The shoes were made of 3mm wire which was bent into a sort of horse shoe shape. These were piled on his forge. When one was red hot he chucked it onto an anvil and waked it with a large hammer and returned it to his hearth. The shoes were about 30mm across. Later on the now flattened bits were changed into horse shoe shapes with three taps of a smaller hammer job done 2000 Forints each ‘Uram (sir) –a fiver each-

rdgs

Dick

Edited By Richard Parsons on 12/03/2012 07:05:12

Here are the pictures of the blacksmiths tongs that I forged today, and also a picture of the propane furnace that I use.

Richard.

Great stuff Richard, how about some articles on forging? I used to do a lot (not very well) when I had access to a small coke forge when we taught engineering metalwork in school. the kids loved the magic of shaping red hot steel (no wrought iron available by that time) as if it were plasticine.

A wonderful craft, largely disappearing, it needs passing on.

Best (impressed) regards

Terry

Edited By Terryd on 14/03/2012 21:58:51