First Forge...Opinions Welcome.

[Shane Csepp]

I'm looking at purchasing my first forge to start learning that side of blade making. I have pretty much narrowed my search to going with something from Atlas as they seem to have a great report in the community and they will fit into the budget.

My question is, for those of you that own the Atlas Mini or the Graham, do you wish you would have gotten one over the other? How has everything performed? What are the pros and cons of each. I assume the Mini is more efficient, but Graham is larger volume. Mini seems to be in stock most of the time, while the Graham is not.

I intend to mostly make small to medium blades, but I don't want to back myself into a corner on space if I decide to do a little blacksmithing, or decide to make a hawk or something that the Mini cannot handle. I would like to forge weld eventually so I'm sure either one will perform well for that task, however, has anyone's experience favored one over the other?

 

[FunkCoaster]

I have the graham prototype - it's no longer made, but I have been overall happy with it. Everything that was less-than-ideal about it seems to be addressed in the new model.
The forced air burner will reduce your propane usage, so the efficiency should be better than a venturi burner. If I recall correctly, for extended use a larger forge will be more efficient (citation needed, I know). Something to do with more thermal mass and such.

Never owned the atlas, but had one of a similar size. I never liked the extreme care you need to take when putting something into the opening to avoid damaging soft firebrick, but maybe that's not an issue with the plicast.

Other consideration - are you moving it a lot? If you regularly take it to your buddy's place, the mini will save you some annoyance.

The Graham listed on the site has an ETA of April 15th. If willing to wait, that's what I'd do.

 

[Shane Csepp]

I have the graham prototype - it's no longer made, but I have been overall happy with it. Everything that was less-than-ideal about it seems to be addressed in the new model.
The forced air burner will reduce your propane usage, so the efficiency should be better than a venturi burner. If I recall correctly, for extended use a larger forge will be more efficient (citation needed, I know). Something to do with more thermal mass and such.

Never owned the atlas, but had one of a similar size. I never liked the extreme care you need to take when putting something into the opening to avoid damaging soft firebrick, but maybe that's not an issue with the plicast.

Other consideration - are you moving it a lot? If you regularly take it to your buddy's place, the mini will save you some annoyance.

The Graham listed on the site has an ETA of April 15th. If willing to wait, that's what I'd do.

I was leaning towards waiting for the graham to be in stock, but figured I'd see if there were many opinions on the subject. Thank you for the insight!

 

[ER Sheldon]

I have owned the Atlas mini for a couple months. I bought it to heat treat blades while I saved for an oven. It’s very well made and works well so far. It’s small though. I think the Graham was out of stock when I bought mine. That would be a better choice if you ever plan to work larger blades. You can’t use flux because of the cast refractory. Just keep that in mind if you ever plan to forge weld using flux.

If you only plan on forging small blades, less than 2.5” wide, the mini would be great.