Forges sold on ebay?

I've seen them, but never used one. I've heard generally good things about the seller. I would be concerned with this forge design about hot spots though. The burners pointing straight down rather than being eccentric to the forge casing won't allow for a good vortex in the interior of the forge. Having that vortex flame gives a more even heat.

Not to say that it won't work for you (especially since you haven't said if you'll be forging or just heat treating). Just giving you a few things to think about.

-d
 
For now I just plan on heat treating Actually sending blades out to be heat treated until I can buy an oven. I just came across this and saved it as a thought down the road. Thanks for the input....Jim
 
funny thing is i just ordered one of those with the rear opening today..
ive been considering making one but i had the money and i didnt wanna do all the running around here and there. so i figure for the lil hobby shop im putting together i figured that will be just fine for the next half a year to a year.
 
Give us a review once it get's some use.
 
I run that exact same forge. For the price, a heck of a nice little forge actually.

It does have hot spots, the venturi style burners put out a nice hot jet straight down from the two burners, which predictably creates 2 hot spots right under them. But it quickly heats the entire forge to forging heats with no problems, and for forging, the hot spots haven't been a problem at all.

For heat treating, I would suggest giving the forge a bit to warm up, and stabilize. Then heat the metal your heat treating over to either side of the burners hot spot. Still plenty of heat, no problem, and a lot more even. It's worked fine for me, takes a few practice pieces to get used to, but any forge will.

Whatever your doing with it, keep in mind, he ships them with kaowool in them and mine had a hard fire brick for a floor, but No refractory. So you will need to order some refractory cement in the kaowool and to line it with.

For the record, I usually start it up at about 10psi to get it up to temp, on a standard gas grill tank, and turn it down to between 4 and 7psi depending on what I'm doing. I haven't done much forge welding yet, but at about 10-12psi, it did reach welding heat. I did line mine pretty well so YMMV.

All in all, I'd suggest it to a new guy in a second, certainly not mad about getting it.

Syn
 
Thanks for the info.
 
yeah thx.. i thought i would just have to get the plumbing from burner to tank
now i know i need the refactory cement :D :D
 
If it comes 'kit' form and you have to track down refractory cement, it seems like a side arm burner kit and tracking down scrap tube material for the body would be an option for a homemade forge. It may not matter, but quite a bit of heat seems to rise out of upright burner tubes on shut down, so I'd keep an eye out for hot spots that aren't there while the forge is running.
Happy New Year, Craig
 
No problem, nice to be able to put some info into the forum for a change after getting so much great guidance out of it.

As for the kit part of things, the metal is all done for you, so all you need is the refractory. I don't have the equipment to do the welding, so that worked out easier for me. I'd suggest both ITC and Satanite, the satanite is more of a reflective coating and it really makes a big difference, especially for quick heat up and higher temps. Darren Ellis has the refractory an is a great guy to deal with.

No question that having the burners running at an angle to swirl the jet inside the cavity would be better, but begging and choosing and all that.

Syn
 
Syn, thanks for the info about the forge. I'm very new to the art of knife making and recieved this forge from my wife for a Christmas present. I planned to use it mainly for heat treating. Being very new to knife making I was confused about the need for:

"refractory cement in the kaowool and to line it with."

What is the purpose of this and do you have any advice how to apply the cement to the forge properly?

Thanks for the review of the forge. I was wondering if it would work for my needs. Looks like I'm OK.

Shawn
 
well theres plenty of folks here better qualified than me to explain it, but it's not hard stuff anyway, so I'll give it a go.

Basically there are 2 kinds of refractory cement.
ITC-100 or similar and Satanite or similar
http://refractory.elliscustomknifeworks.com/

ITC type coatings are to rigidize and "glue" the lining into the forge, you can also use it to patch or fill in low spots to get a nice round cavity inside the forge. It comes as a powder and is just mixed with water to a cement like consistency, then applied to the kaowool, I just used my gloved hands.

Satanite is another type of refractory coating that from my experience accomplishes about the same things as the ITC, plus is more flux resistant for forge welding(Damascus, etc), and has a more heat reflective property to it. I've found it really helps my forge reach temp faster, and get hotter period.
It comes in a powder as well, and you mix it and apply the same way, although I found it easier to get a good coat by making it a bit thinner and sort of painting it on with my hand as apposed to troweling it on thick.

The links are to Darrin Ellis's site, but besides him being a good guy to deal with, he has some pretty decent info on his site too, that helped me out when I was setting up my forge. So check him out, good site

Syn
 
synghyn thx again the more info i can find out about this forge the better. the guys is gonna send my forge out tomorrow and i figure i still gotta get the plumbing to gether and order the refactory cement so... i figure another week to 2 weeks depending on how long it takes to get all my peices in.
 
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