General equipment related questions thread.

J

JZknives

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Feb 7, 2013
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1. Im getting lots of scale on my blades , will setting up a "neutral" atmosphere eliminate this? Im asking because a user pointed out that my propane flame goes straight down onto the blade and thats bad. if so what do i need to do to my forge to attain this state. Im thinking of building a new one and want to make sure its done properly. the forge I have is a ck forge double burner (its sold on ebay)

2. Knifemaking anvils. Right now I have a railroad anvil which is nice but does not have the edges I need for proper knifemaking and the stump it is sitting on im pretty sure is rotting and is absorbing the blows more than the anvil is. I have read that the best bang for your buck other than buying an actual anvil is a long peice of 4x4 or 6x6 metal and sinking it in cement. What would be the best metal to use? And what are some different ways to mount it? I know cement is one but wouldnt the constant hammering eventually fracture the cement?

3. Somebody told me that using a normal grill sized propane tank will not allow me to reach welding tempatures? is this true or false and why?
 
1) Neutral is best. Brush off the blade before and after forging each heat. Pickle in vinegar overnight to remove scale. Indirect flame, running around the forge lining instead of directly on the blade is far better.
2) Good anvils vary in results, but good hammer skills will work on most any hard object.
3) A 20 pound tank is fine, but may freeze up after a long run at forging heat.....if you run a venturi burner. Either switch to a blown burner, or a 100 pound tank. The alternative is to put the 20 pound tank in a keg-tub ( what you ice a beer keg in) filled with water. Have a hose running a steady squirt in the tub to keep the water at ambient temp. Another solution is to manifold two 20 pound tanks together.
 
I am not an expert, so this is just my experience. I have been using post anvils for, well, as long as I have been forging. I started with a 40 pounds round chunk stuck up in a plastic bucket full of concrete. It cost me about 50 bucks to make. I then upgraded to a 135 pound piece (again stuck in a bucket full of concrete), and I could really feel the difference. Using someone else's 250 pound london pattern is a very pleasant shock. In other words, Just get the biggest piece of metal you can find/carry, put it in some concrete, and away you go.

Finally, don't get rid of the railroad rail. It can make a very nice small shop anvil later for things like tapping pins into place and other assorted tasks.
 
thegeek574 said:
I am not an expert, so this is just my experience. I have been using post anvils for, well, as long as I have been forging. I started with a 40 pounds round chunk stuck up in a plastic bucket full of concrete. It cost me about 50 bucks to make. I then upgraded to a 135 pound piece (again stuck in a bucket full of concrete), and I could really feel the difference. Using someone else's 250 pound london pattern is a very pleasant shock. In other words, Just get the biggest piece of metal you can find/carry, put it in some concrete, and away you go.

Finally, don't get rid of the railroad rail. It can make a very nice small shop anvil later for things like tapping pins into place and other assorted tasks.
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Ya it will be my platform for hardy tools :)

and thank you for the tip on the weight.

Where can I find chunks like this btw?
 
Buying the steel new will cost too much. I am in the process of building an anvil. Maybe I will take some pics and post them as I go. Check out heavy equipment recyclers, or a farm machinery scrap yard. I have been accumulating 1" thick plate to weld together and hard face. I have a 1x5x 14" for the top, and several 14x14 pieces to make the base and horn out of. Hardened steel is recommended of course, but I am hard facing mine. This is similar to how I plan to make mine: http://www.anvilfire.com/21centbs/planfile/ http://www.metalwebnews.com/howto/anvil1/anvil2.html
 
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JZknives said:
isnt a blown burner more dangerous?
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You do have to make sure that the gas is never on without the fan being on.
Your forge should have a little yellow flame coming out the opening, if it doesn't you're running too much air and the scale will be worse. Especially important if you should try Damascus or Sanmai. With a blown forge I find the loudest sound, then tweak from there.
I second thegeek- don't use a 250lb anvil, you'll never want to go back to a smaller one! I've got a stack of smaller ones I used way back when- one 150 is set up for tooling, and the others just never get used.
You might find that if your time is worth anything, a good anvil isn't that expensive- find your local ABANA chapter and hit the tailgate sales at the conference.
 
Smaller tanks are fine for forging. But for welding not so much as the newer tanks have a safety valve that bigger tanks don't have. So no matter how much you try to open it up it won't get hotter then it already was previously at its max. I couldn't get up to welding heat in one of my forges and I talked to the manager of the company I get my tanks filled at and got this info. He said that larger tanks didn't have this safety feature. After I switched back to a larger tank I was easily at welding heat where the smaller tank didn't come close. I wanted the convenience of carrying around smaller tanks but had to switch back to the big boys
 
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Good point about the modern safety valves in 20 pound tanks. My past use of them was pre-new tank rules. I use a large tank in the forge, so I am a bit out of date for using the smaller tanks for welding. I do use them for demos, and they will get to welding heat in my NC Whisper Low Boy forge. As I said, freeze-up is a problem if they run too long.

A blown burner runs at a lower pressure than a venturi, and thus can use a larger volume of gas. It mixes the gas with air in an adjustable form, due to the needle valve and the blower airflow regulation ( Gate valve, choke plate, VS). A blown burner can be run at a very low flame, far below a venturi burner, or a huge flame that imitates a F16 on takeoff. Atmosphere adjustment is as easy as a tweak of a knob. I would consider a blown burner no more dangerous than a venturi, and perhaps safer. If planning on adding PID control to a forge, I would not use a venturi, as it would be much less safe.
 
I can definately see them freezing up. Even my big tank gets extremely cold after being at welding heat for a while. It's crazy
 
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