My flame won't "swirl"

[Robert_Phelps]

I just fired up my one-brick forge for the first time, to make my first knife (a little knife shaped scrap of 1095 that I beveled, to test how things go from forge to sharpening and testing). The book I read, and everything I read said to make the flame swirl into the thing.. and I did my best to do that.. but then when I put the knife in, the flame just hits the knife and makes a nickel sized spot red hot (and non-magnetic)

I followed Wayne Goddard's directions, made the heat hole 2.5" tall, a little less than an inch wide, and almost to the back. I made the fire hole halfway down from the bottom of the heat hole, and angle up into the heat hole.

(Btw, though I didn't really do anything, it was still cool to almost heat treat a knife )

 

[B Finnigan]

I doubt that in a chamber that small you could get a vortex flame without some type of forced air setup. On a larger forge the vortex comes from the angle of the burner and a cylindrical forge interior.