Building my first forge (update with pics)

L

lorias

Joined
Dec 23, 2013
Messages
3
Hey. For my highschool senior project I am building a forge and making a few knives. I am planning to keep the knives small (7-8 inches overall at the longest). I have ordered 4 lineal feet of 1" inswool and 5 pounds of satanite. I am still deciding on what heat source to use as well as whether to use firebricks or not. My original plan was to make a forge out of firebricks, wrap the inside in inswool, coat the wool with satanite, and use a propane torch for a heat source. Do you think that this will work pretty well? Or is there an easier way to make a forge work? As for tools, I have access to a bench grinder, drill press, and band saw, so I think I am pretty set in that regard. Any suggestions for my forge plans? Thanks in advance.
 
Last edited:
Welcome to Bladeforums, and Shop Talk.
Filling out your profile with all the info will be a very good idea.

Your forge plan will not work well.

Make your forge from any simple cylinder of metal. A piece 12" long section of 6" diameter stove pipe will work fine. Line it with the wool and coat with 1/4" of satanite. You can get even more out of the forge if you use of a piece of 8" pipe and use two inches of wool. Use four fire bricks to make a stand for the forge, two or three bricks to block off the back ( just stack them), and set one flat down in front of the forge as a work shelf. If you want to, you can set a brick on each side of the front to make the opening about 2X3".

Make a simple venturi burner with a few dollars worth of pipe fittings. A 3/4" burner tube is good for a small forge.
Get a propane regulator and hose to connect the burner to a 20# propane tank. You can use an acetylene or propane welding gauge, or a propane gauge that has a gauge from 0-30 PSI. The whole regulator and hose setup, including a needle valve, can be purchased from High Temp Tools and Refractories for a very low price. They also sell burner kits.
 
Last edited:
Thank you for the advice! I'll research the venture burner. I'll also have to start looking for places to get stove piping. I'll keep this thread updated with my progress!
 
Stove piping at any home improvement box store. Venturi burner plans, Larry Zoeller has a great instructional site. Even gets into burner theory to some degree.
 
I've been thinking the same thing. I am fortunate enough to already have 2 pieces of 8" pipe about 16" long. Now for the other pieces. But first, something to stand it all on, I am about out of bench space.
 
Hi again! I couldn't find the forum rules, so I hope it is ok to bump this thread with my progress. I'm well on my way to completing my forge. Here it is in pictures:
I started out with a long piece of 6 inch diameter stove pipe. I cut it into a 12 piece section:


Then (with the help of a friend), I welded one end of the stove pipe closed with a disc I cut out of the remaining pipe:


Here is the back of my venturi (I used this website as a guide:http://www.rayrogers.com/venturi.htm). The crossbar I welded on is not perfectly centered, but it should do the job well enough:


I then drilled a hole in the stove pipe and cut out my inswool (I'm using 1 inch). Here is a pic of the inside after the inswool was put in place:


Here is a pic of the whole contraption (that is a regulator, gauge, and hose from Wayne Suhrbier at hightemptools.com)


I still have to put two coats of satanite on and a coat or two of ITC-100 (hopefully I can do this Sunday or Monday). For a door, I am just going to stack a few fire bricks. If you guys think I need a floor, I will probably just bake some cat litter onto the bottom of the forge.

I've decided to use 1084 as a steel for my first few knives (probably all of them for the foreseeable future actually). I can't wait for the weather to warm up a little bit so I can start actually making knives!
 
For a floor, put an extra thick layer of satanite and cut a thin soft firebrick for a floor. You can bang through coated kaowool pretty easy.

I didn't see your entire burner. But the jet does need to be centered and aimed right down the middle. It also must have a conical inlet and burner tip. The flow of gas draws in air, but the burning gass espanding in the flame holder (the conical tip) causes the venturi effect drawing more air in as it combusts and expands away. Venturis take tuning and proper design to be truly efficient.

Looks good. Should be a cool little forge. Kudos to you for DIY and taking kn this project at your age. Are you putting legs on it?

-Eric
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top