Help selecting my first Lp forge. Price range $400.

L

lamebeaver brian

Joined
Mar 22, 2013
Messages
2
Having made a dozen fixed blades over the years, I now have a little more time to devote to my hobby and want to try forging some steel. Probably will stick to O1 for now as I do not have a heat treat oven and feel comfortable using an acetylene torch. The oven is down the road and am saving for one now. I have made some decent camp use blades and some kriss ones just for fun with impala handles. Even tho I made my first knife over fifteen years ago I feel like I am just starting. I have a Bader variable belt grinder, drill press, buffer, grind wheel (two), and recently bought a plasma cutter to help shape the profiles for kriss blades. I already have an anvil (Peter Wright 150lb) but need some accessories like hardies and good tongs. If anybody could steer me in the right direction regarding forging especially I would love to hear from you.
This is my first time posting. Hope to hear from anyone!
 
I started to assemble all the parts for a forge ( air tank, parts for burner etc..) and then found this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-LP-Propane-Gas-Forge-for-Knife-Making-Welding-Blacksmith-Metalsmith-/331718207358?hash=item4d3bf2277e:g:xPEAAOSwajVUQU~Y

Flat floor, already lined, much thicker steel housing than an air tank like I originally intended to use etc... Really not far off the price of the components and the proceeds go to the school where he teaches. I spent hours and hours looking at different forges and the parts needed and IMO this is a good deal.

Now, that being said, I spend all my knife making time doing material removal and have only toyed with the forge so far, so I can't comment on how well it works. Just that it is very well built with everything you need to not only get started, but something that can be used for years to come.
 
"I started to assemble all the parts for a forge ( air tank, parts for burner etc..) and then found this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-LP-Propa...EAAOSwajVUQU~Y"

Since the subject of Ebay forges has come up, has anyone used or have any information on the Lithuanian made forges on there?
 
Lithuanian forges aren't lined, and you will spend a lot of time trying to find the adapter to connect the European propane to the American propane fittings. It looks like he has an enormous variety and he really floods eBay with new versions, but they are all still blacksmith forges essentially. Like the forge mentioned above, there is no swirl in the chamber, meaning an undesirable level of uneven heating.

Mine are brick instead of wool, have a handle on top for easy movement, and are all built to swirl. I have one of these in stock:
http://www.atlasknife.com/product/graham-forge

All that said, I don't believe there's a better knifemaker forge than the Atlas. It gets forge welding hot and is much more efficient than anything else out there. At 30k BTU in a small chamber, it uses 1/3 the propane of larger forges. I know at least 2 ABS mastersmiths that have bought them and use them regularly, despite already having much larger forges.
http://www.atlasknife.com/product/atlas-mini-forge/
 
Last edited:
Thanks, I have looked at yours before and guess I thought they were out of my price range, especially the Graham. You do have the thermocouple package already set up so that is a huge bonus for me. I'm really looking to use one more for heat treating O1, at least initially since Anni Evenheat is definitely out of my range. Also interested in experimenting with Hamons and I understand that they come out better when heat treated is done in a Forge. I definitely have you in mind when I get ready.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk
 
I bought an Atlas Forge (to Apex NC) a few weeks ago and have used a half dozen times it to heat treat and just started forge welding and frankly, I can't say enough good things about it from the compact footprint to ability to get to temp quickly to what seems to be an unholy ability to consume half the propane I expected it to. I don't have a ton of experience with LP forges, granted, but I'm very pleased with the purchase and performance.

My .02
Ty~
 
Ty Rone said:
I bought an Atlas Forge (to Apex NC) a few weeks ago and have used a half dozen times it to heat treat and just started forge welding and frankly, I can't say enough good things about it from the compact footprint to ability to get to temp quickly to what seems to be an unholy ability to consume half the propane I expected it to. I don't have a ton of experience with LP forges, granted, but I'm very pleased with the purchase and performance.

My .02
Ty~
Click to expand...
Good to know. How many knives can you heat treat at one time in the Atlas Forge?

Same question for the Graham model for anyone who knows?

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk
 
... How many knives can you heat treat at one time in the Atlas Forge? ..."

One at a time. You can only HT multiple blades in a HT oven.

If you have ten blades, you just heat them and quench them one at a time. Ten blades might take an hour at the most.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
... How many knives can you heat treat at one time in the Atlas Forge? ..."

One at a time. You can only HT multiple blades in a HT oven.

If you have ten blades, you just heat them and quench them one at a time. Ten blades might take an hour at the most.
Click to expand...
Gotcha, but curious. Is there a reason that you can't do more than one at a time even if you had a wide enough forge that you could put a brick in the bottom along with one of the racks sold for holding multiple blades in an oven?

It's not the heat treat of ten blades one at a time that I'm concerned about. It's having those ten blades tempering in one oven with each having been put in at a different time and then needing to come out at different times. What can I say, I'm easily confused[emoji15]

Sent from my SM-T310 using Tapatalk
 
I would only treat one blade at a time in my Atlas. I can only manage one at a time.

I plan on building an oven just for kicks but in the forge I can't imagine trying to juggle even two.

Just seems .... problematic.

I'm just making knives for me and gifts for friends/family, so a complete hobbyist and I'm probably not thinking from a production mindset.
 
The heating to austenitization temperature and quench is done one at a time. When all the blades are done, wash them off and put in the oven to temper. If you wanted to put them in the temper oven one at a time as they came out of the quench, you could (but it is not necessary). Just start the timer once the last blade was in the oven. The "one hour" temper time is just a minimum number. Most folks used to say two hours. Any temper more than an hour and less than four hours will get the same results with no problems to the blade. You do need two temper cycles, with a cooling to room temperature between them. The cooling only need to be long enough to reach ambient. Cooling off in running cold water or dunking the 400F blade in a pan of water is the simplest way to do that. It will not harm, warp, or crack the blades. Metallurgically, the more rapid water cooling is better than a slow air cooling between tempers.
 
Even the best forge has a slight variance in temperature throughout the chamber, which is why the blade is constantly moved in/out when heat treating. Stacy calls this "pumping". An oven doesn't have this issue, thus you can just lay them in the oven and quench one at a time.

Now, as far as forging goes, 2 blades in an Atlas and 3 in a Graham is very do-able.
 
You didn't mention what abilities you have, but one option is building your own forge.

For about $100 you can build a suitable forge for most hobby tasks. Thjis is within the abilities of anyone who an make a knife.

For $200 you can build a very nice forge. This may involve a little welding, but is still a pretty simple forge.

For $300-400 you can build a very good PID controlled forge that will do forging and HT to a very exact degree ( pun intended). This is a little more complex, but all the tech stuff has been worked out and is available in the many threads on building my two-stage PID controlled burner forge. Maybe someday I will put together a book, "Making your own PID controlled forge".

Unlike Cold Steel, I developed this design, and it has been refined through others building it and adding improvements. We have all shared the discussions and tech work, thus ending up with the Uber Forge ( Hmmm, that sound like another trademark idea). I could have patented it, and trademarked the name PID Controlled Forge, but instead made it public domain and hope eventually everyone builds one for themselves.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top