Homemade forge ??

C

Chadentwistle

Joined
Apr 18, 2013
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237
I came across a big pice of metal pipe. It's like 20" long, id of about 6" and is like 1" maybe more,thick steel.
The thing must weigh like 60 lbs. could this make a decent forge for smaller knives? Will I have to get some kind of material on the inside of it? I don't think you could burn it out for quite a while... Any suggestions to make a can type forge..

Thanks
 
It would work OK. But many use something with a larger diameter like an old propane tank. The forge should be lined. At 2000 F you will loose a lot of heat with an unlined forge. With LP going for $4 a gallon the cost will add up. You want to keep the heat in and use as little fuel as possible for the job at hand. A lot of forges use a couple of inches of Koa wool with a ridgidizer, refractory coating on top of that. You could try a 1" Kao wool with a coating. But 2" of insulation is a lot better than 1".
 
It would be too narrow for much of a forge......and ridiculously heavy. There is no need for a thick wall. Schedule 40 or 80 is more than enough. You need an interior diameter of about 8" minimum to make a usable chamber after lining it with Ins-wool. 8" makes an approx. 6" chamber with 1" wool and 4" with 2" wool. Try and find a 16"X8-10" pipe or tube. 16X10 lined with 2" wool will make a superb forge.
 
Ok just scrap metal then....So you dont really need that thick wall pipe, the heat will be retained by the wool?
Thanks for the info.
chad
 
Not scrap metal. Weld some mild plate steel to one end, maybe 10-12" square or round. It will make a good quench tube for smaller blades.
 
You certainly would not knock it over:rolleyes: The tube is only to hold the kao wool in place. I had some old 5 gallon metal paint cans that would have worked great for a smaller forge. The biggest forge I made was 14" OD 24" long with .1" wall. Worked great. Wish I still had it.
 
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