Forging Demo Pics

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Here are a couple of pictures from the demo yesterday.That is a sword being forged.Setup is easily portable in the back of the Voyager.Notice the rounded drawing face I grind into one side of the hammer.( It is facing up in the second photo)It will really move some steel.Also,the anvil base has those extended 2X4s that hold all my hammers and tongs.They act as the carrying handles when moving it.

 

[RUJOCO]

Stacy,
How long does that 20# bottle last with your 3 burner set-up? Is it always running full tilt? Nice pics....gives me some ideas.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

It ran from 9AM till 3:30PM, when the storm hit.I used just under one tank.The biggest mistake makers make is running the forge at full throttle. You bring it up to the heat desired,and back the pressure off until it maintains the heat needed.You don't need a 2300 degree chamber to forge out 10XX blades.The lowboy is nearly whisper quiet at forging temps.The forge chamber should be at a temperature where the steel won't burn up if left in a bit too long(this is the cause of many poor blades).Once properly adjusted you can work on two pieces at a time,with one in the forge while you are hammering on the other.Put the one back in and take out the red hot one.
Once it has been running for a long time it will take a fully heated forge a LONG time to cool.The rain poured on the forge for one hour before it let up enough to pack the gear.The bottom was still too hot to move bare handed.
As they get down to 1/4 full,propane tanks may freeze up due to the cooling of the propane under the constant boil off.If it does ,gently shake the tank a bit ( to break up the frozen propane ice) and that will give you some extra pressure.If it gets really frozen up,change tanks and let that one warm back up.A 100 pound tank at the permanent forge can make this less of a problem.
Stacy

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Here is a picture of the forge chamber. The heated air of the chamber has a different density than the outside air and makes the sword blade look bent.If you look at the other side port,you see it is actually sticking straight out the other side of the forge.Also,the color is not the way it looks to the eye.That yellow is the camera reacting to the intense heat,giving a false color.

 

[RUJOCO]

Well...that's encouraging, in the last year I couldn't figure out my total consumption forging cause the tank(20#) doubles as my BBq tank partime. Although the forge probably hasn't run more than 3 hrs at a time I can't really gripe since it serves double duty.

 

[Darren Ellis]

Stacy, thanks for posting those pics, gave me some ideas! There's a new knife shop that opened up in the shopping center right behind my shop here in Knoxville...I can literally throw a rock over the shopping center and hit the guys storefont...not that I'd do that! But anyway, I may have to talk to him about doing forging demos on a semi-regular basis...might be good for business..both his and mine!



-Darren