Idea for unusual primitive forge (you will laugh at this)

C

chemistguy

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May 28, 2013
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Basically make a fire log like in the video below but with a fatter log and blow air through the hole in the side.

[video=youtube;CNeOyoJK5EE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNeOyoJK5EE[/video]

If I had a hand-cranked blower that I could carry out into the woods I'd try it out and use a rock as an anvil.

Another idea: the Dakota fire hole. It naturally feeds itself with air and gets quite hot. I could also blow air into it through some reeds or bamboo or an aluminum tube or something. See below.

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I think they would both work, but the fire log for a shorter period of time. If you hooked a thermocouple up to it you could measure the temperature.

The Dakota fire pit would just be a vertical forge, If you had coal you could probably get it hot enough to weld with as long as you could get air to it.
 
My answer to these type of ideas is "WHY?"

The answer is always something like, " What if I broke my knife when camping?"

My reply to that is -
Are you going to lug hammers and tongs and axes to chop wood and some knife steel and some files and a sharpening stone on your wilderness trek? How did you plan on shaping the blades once pounded out on the rock? What were you going to use for a quenchant? Who was going to be blowing on the bamboo while you are forging the knife?
Why not just take a couple of good knives instead. You could make them before you leave, and leave the tools behind. This will lighten your backpack by twenty pounds or so...and provide you with usable knives.


With all due respect to Rambo movies and their ilk, making a knife on a rock from a chunk of steel conveniently found in the woods is not going to work. Make believe is Ok for video games and big screen fantasy, but in real world camping and wilderness survival, I doubt anyone will EVER have to make a knife from scratch today.

Final humorous note:
Blowing through bamboo to fan the flames won't work anyway, because it isn't hollow all the way through, and you could not provide much air volume either.
I love Rambo and adventure movies where someone cuts a four foot piece of reed/bamboo , lays on the river bottom, and breathes through it :) , or runs water through a long piece of it like pipe. Bamboo is solid at every node. It isn't a hollow pipe! Doesn't anyone vet these movies, or is it just that no one cares if it is pure BS.
Breathing underwater down a long thin snorkel is nearly impossible beyond three feet down, anyway. For grins, try it in the 48" deep shallow end of the swimming pool with a piece of 3/8" PVC tubing and see what happens ( have a safety buddy watch you closely). It has to do with pressure differential and tubular resistance, but to put it in backwoods blacksmith's terms...it ain't gonna' work.
Oh, and don't use a garden hose to do this, even if you are just a foot below the surface. You will end up breathing in the air you exhale, and pass out quickly.
 
I'm not suggesting I'd set this up when camping or backpacking, just in the woods by my house for fun to see if it would work.
I might use some spring steel I found on an old car in the woods or an old tractor tine I also found, but I sure won't be grinding on a rock by hand... that could take a freaking lifetime.
 
Bamboo blow pipes do work, you have to punch out all the nodes except for the end one towards the charcoal which has a small hole in it.
 
You might start with some #4 rebar. If it works you could post to the outdoor survival sub forum. Try making a small knife, an awl, and a fishing hook. Under the conditions you are describing, it is doubtful you could do much better with good steel. But, if it works you could try some of your spring steel. Keep track of the time and the colors of the heated steel.

You might think about moving this to the outdoor survival or outdoor survival skills sub forum to see if there would be some interest in following a thread if you try. It kind of deviates from knife making per se.
 
bladsmth said:
My answer to these type of ideas is "WHY?"

The answer is always something like, " What if I broke my knife when camping?"

My reply to that is -
Are you going to lug hammers and tongs and axes to chop wood and some knife steel and some files and a sharpening stone on your wilderness trek? How did you plan on shaping the blades once pounded out on the rock? Whuat were you going to use for a quenchant? Who was going to be blowing on the bamboo while you are forging the knife?
Why not just take a couple of good knives instead. You could make them before you leave, and leave the tools behind. This will lighten your backpack by twenty pounds or so...and provide you with usable knives.


With all due respect to Rambo movies and their ilk, making a knife on a rock from a chunk of steel conveniently found in the woods is not going to work. Make believe is Ok for video games and big screen fantasy, but in real world camping and wilderness survival, I doubt anyone will EVER have to make a knife from scratch today.

Final humorous note:
Blowing through bamboo to fan the flames won't work anyway, because it isn't hollow all the way through, and you could not provide much air volume either.
I love Rambo and adventure movies where someone cuts a four foot piece of reed/bamboo , lays on the river bottom, and breathes through it :) , or runs water through a long piece of it like pipe. Bamboo is solid at every node. It isn't a hollow pipe! Doesn't anyone vet these movies, or is it just that no one cares if it is pure BS.
Breathing underwater down a long thin snorkel is nearly impossible beyond three feet down, anyway. For grins, try it in the 48" deep shallow end of the swimming pool with a piece of 3/8" PVC tubing and see what happens ( have a safety buddy watch you closely). It has to do with pressure differential and tubular resistance, but to put it in backwoods blacksmith's terms...it ain't gonna' work.
Oh, and don't use a garden hose to do this, even if you are just a foot below the surface. You will end up breathing in the air you exhale, and pass out quickly.
Click to expand...

Sounds like your speaking from personal experience Stacy. LOL. But your correct 33 feet is equal to on atmosphere which means at 33 feet your body would have twice the pressure on it as it would on the surface. So at 4 feet your going to have to overcome about 2 lbs of pressure and since that's about all your lungs can stand you would be hard pressed to breath.
 
Jim McGuinn said:
Sounds like your speaking from personal experience Stacy. LOL. But your correct 33 feet is equal to on atmosphere which means at 33 feet your body would have twice the pressure on it as it would on the surface. So at 4 feet your going to have to overcome about 2 lbs of pressure and since that's about all your lungs can stand you would be hard pressed to breath.
Click to expand...
Then how does scuba equipment work
 
on a windy day you can easily heat a 1/4 inch round piece of the steel they use to wrap bundles of rebar to a dull red or even a cherry red with just a regular fire, but obviously that's not hot enough
 
Why do you have to do all this in the woods?


If you do it close to the house, you have power to run the fan, that you can control.
You have water to put out the fire.
You have a phone to call the fire dept.

You have all your anvil, hammers and heavy tools close by.
 
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If your into primitive forges that actually work I would do a search for Dogan African blacksmithing videos on youtube.
might need to find your self a goat skin or some plastic grain sacks to make bellows with...
 
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