Coffee Can FORGE??

honestly not a good idea - a coffee can is just not the right thing to use, they are often galvanized or coated, and won't have any high temp resistance... (on top of that, usually really thin)

read some more on this forum to find useful forge designs
 
Use a new 1 gallon paint can instead. You can get them from Lowes and probably Home Depot. It'll be much more versatile in size and you can still use a hand torch to heat it if you want. Get some kaowool (ceramic wool) to line the inside and some satinite (high temp refractory cement) to coat it, or the equivalents.

Here is the first propane forge I made using the same things. Don't mind the video quality as it was 9 years ago when I uploaded it. And you don't need the fire bricks, I just used them because I picked a couple up when I got the supplies at a local pottery supply shop.

You might want to lower your volume before watching, the forge is a bit loud in the recording.



~Paul
My Youtube Channel
... (Just some older videos of some knives I've made in the past)
 
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You can get everything at home depot. You can buy empty metal paint cans, but I made one, it's just not going to do what you want it to do. Map has was a little better, I could get a small blade red hot, but it's just not that good
 
Before making a tiny and hard to control forge consider making one just a little larger and more usable. A 12" to 16" piece of 6"to 8" pipe or any metal tube around that size (old oxygen tank, small air tank, section of stove pipe, etc.), a couple feet of kaowool, a small bag of satanite, and some pipe fittings will make a propane forge that will make knives and do simple HT. It will cost hardly any more than the pretty much useless coffee can forge.

Everything you need can be found at HTT&R - http://hightemptools.com/supplies.html
Here is what a forge needs:
A shell - that can be anything that will hold the refractory in place. Any metal sleeve will work. Something robust is best, but even stovepipe will do. A look around your garage or a junk yard will find many possible candidates. Also, don't worry about "galvanized". It is not going to be melting .. it is outside the refractory. I have seen a forge made from a roll of rabbit fencing and one from chicken wire. All it needs to do is hold the roll of kaowool. The shell should cost nothing, or at the most $10. The smallest size practical is 12" long and 5" round. The best bang for the buck in building a forge is a shell 16" long and 7" or 8" round.
A lining - The normal lining is refractory wool, usually kaowool. You want at least 2300°F resistance. It is sold by the foot and usually 24" wide. It sells for $9.50 a linear foot, but it is best to get a 5 foot roll for $36 ( you can use the extra to build your next forge). For a bigger and better forge, use a double layer of 1" wool is best.
A refractory coating - Satanite is the most popular, but there are many others ,like Plistex,APG-36, etc. Cost for 5# of satanite is $15. That will build a 16" forge.
A burner - A simple venturi burner can be made from a few pipe fittings. They can also be bought as a kit, or fully assembled. many folks buy a plug-and-play burner from Atlas Forge because they are as cheap as making one yourself. The Atlas burners come with all the fittings to hook up to a 20# propane tank. IMHO, they are the best money spent in building a first forge. $70 for the whole rig.
http://www.atlasknife.com/product/atlas-30k-burner/

So $125 and a weekend of fun will give you a $300 forge that will last as long as you make knives.
 
If you are just dabbling you can search for two brick forge. Where you use two soft fire bricks and a torch. Pretty cheap and it does work. If you know you are going to be serious take Stacy's advice and build a proper forge.
 
newtoknifemaking said:
anyone able to help me get a material list on this https://www.instructables.com/id/Coffee-Can-Forge/ whats the best thing to use as the bucket
Click to expand...
I have made that exact instructible (because I had all the parts laying around). I can 100% attest that it will not work like you hope it will. Plaster of paris mixed with sand looks like refractory cement but it in no way compares other than color and thickness. I used a propane torch, mapp gas torch, and a propane weed burner torch as heat sources. It does not work any better than a 2 inch iron pipe with a hole in the side. Probably not even as good as the pipe because the plaster absorbs heat instead of reflecting it.
 
My recommendation to anyone starting out is just buy one, and I recommend Atlas. Either the blacksmith model or the mini are both not much more than if you did it yourself. The hard part in the beginning is wanting to do things cheap so you aren’t out too much if this doesn’t turn out to be your thing. The problem is you don’t even know what is good/bad right/wrong yet, so you could end up struggling and unhappy with the hobby because your equipment just isn’t right. Better to just get something you know will work and have better odds at happiness. As said above, if it turns out not to be your thing you can resell a real forge. Nobody wants to buy someone else’s coffee can forge because those folks are on the same quest to cobble something together for nothing.
 
To add to lanternnate's good advise:
If you want to buy once cy once, another choice is the NC Tool company Whisper forge series. I like the Lowboy for its versatility, but the knifemaker model is also nice.
 
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