Forge extension for sword heat treating

[Jason Fry]

I wanted to show y'all something I tried out that worked pretty well. I have a sword order, but didn't have a long enough forge or oven to do the hardening. I obtained a 24" piece of spiral duct and insulated it with 2" kaowool and a coating of satanite. It's made to fit right on top of my existing blown burner forge. By pretty much sealing off the top, I can get fairly even heat throughout the stack. By expanding the space without expanding the burner capacity, I can dial it in closer to HT temp rather than too hot like a normal running forge. And when I'm done, the extension goes back in the shop and the forge is back to normal.

Here's a video showing the extension, and a normalizing cycle.

Here's a video of a quench. I did 9 of these, but only did the video once.

 

[Ken H>]

Looks like it's working pretty good. The orange is pretty darn even from end to end. Good job

I REALLY like your quench tank right by the Heating place. I've never understood the folks who walk 10 feet from heat to quench.

 

[Jason Fry]

Looks like it's working pretty good. The orange is pretty darn even from end to end. Good job

By eye there's a little bit of difference, but not much. Sure looks even on camera. One thing I did mess with some was the gas pressure. On this burner, I've always just cranked it up for welding. Never tried to crank it down. It'll take some more experimenting. It's also hard to adjust the gas/air ratio when it's at full heat and you can't really see the flame color.

 

[nmbarta]

Nice, looks about as even as you could hope for!! The bare feet though?.....that's tough!!