When I started about knifemaking I didn't have a forge. The first thing I did was welding together a thick metal work bench/table which will also double as a forget support. After buying a bunch of firebricks, drilling a piece of tube for the air intake I built something like this:
I used it like twice (for my first knife and then a batch of four more blades, I screwed up one of those badly by the way). No long after that I realised that it was not such a great idea. When I had all that set up I couldn't use my work bench/table, it was not portable at all when hot (like 200kg or so bench+bricks). If I fired it up inside my shop I smoked it all (damn, I almost choked o death in there!), and if I did it outside I was forced to leave it unatended all night while it cooled down. Not that I fear for someone stealing my hot bricks or the bench itself but someone might get hurt or whatever. The only thing it was great for was annealing steel. The doble thicknes firebrick walls keep heat for ages.
Anyway, I am no expert welder at all but I thought it would be possible to build something small, portable and cheap. I bought a bunch of scrap steel, borrowed (again) the welding machine and got at it. This is what I came up with.
Square tube (2,5mm thick I guess) as a base with a few rows of hole for the air intake. Welded on round tube (2,5mm thick) for attaching the blower (moms hair dryer... don't let her know!) via a 4 feet long flexible tube. The other side is closed via a two piece wood plug (need to think about something a bit better and airtight). 2mm steel plate sides and another 2mm removable stand alone crate to keep the burning coals away from the base tube. If this metal crate ever melts or whatever, I can always make another one (I have a lot of metal plate left).
And here you have a few pictures of the thing running. This is when I started it up this weekend. You can notice a pice of scrap steel I use to warm up the quenching oil before quenching my blades. I also brace it with a bunch of firebricks so it doesn't tip over. I need to weld some steel "L" shaped legs on that thing from the top lip to the bottom tube. Right now is not stable at all.
Here you have a few more of it at full throttle. You can see a blade in there waiting to get red hot.
As you can see I lined the walls with some thin pieces of firebrick so as not to melt the thin (2mm thick) metal plate walls. I got the pieces it from a broken square tube like fire brick which is used for making chimenies. I have another two left so when they break, I can cut new pices out of those ones.
I use a mixture of charcoal and mineral coal so I can get more heat (about 50% of each or so) and light it with a few pices of those white tablets for BBQ's.
The best thing about this set up is that it doesn't use a lot of fuel, you can fire it up and let it cool down a bit while you dress up your shop and when you finish, even with the thing still hot, you can (carefully) put it inside over a non flamable surface and go home while it cools down by itselft.
Well, I hope this helps anyone thinking about making a forge himself. I bet any of you can make one like that (or better) way cheaper than me. Feel free to criticize it as it will surely help me improving it.
Mikel
I used it like twice (for my first knife and then a batch of four more blades, I screwed up one of those badly by the way). No long after that I realised that it was not such a great idea. When I had all that set up I couldn't use my work bench/table, it was not portable at all when hot (like 200kg or so bench+bricks). If I fired it up inside my shop I smoked it all (damn, I almost choked o death in there!), and if I did it outside I was forced to leave it unatended all night while it cooled down. Not that I fear for someone stealing my hot bricks or the bench itself but someone might get hurt or whatever. The only thing it was great for was annealing steel. The doble thicknes firebrick walls keep heat for ages.
Anyway, I am no expert welder at all but I thought it would be possible to build something small, portable and cheap. I bought a bunch of scrap steel, borrowed (again) the welding machine and got at it. This is what I came up with.
Square tube (2,5mm thick I guess) as a base with a few rows of hole for the air intake. Welded on round tube (2,5mm thick) for attaching the blower (moms hair dryer... don't let her know!) via a 4 feet long flexible tube. The other side is closed via a two piece wood plug (need to think about something a bit better and airtight). 2mm steel plate sides and another 2mm removable stand alone crate to keep the burning coals away from the base tube. If this metal crate ever melts or whatever, I can always make another one (I have a lot of metal plate left).
And here you have a few pictures of the thing running. This is when I started it up this weekend. You can notice a pice of scrap steel I use to warm up the quenching oil before quenching my blades. I also brace it with a bunch of firebricks so it doesn't tip over. I need to weld some steel "L" shaped legs on that thing from the top lip to the bottom tube. Right now is not stable at all.
Here you have a few more of it at full throttle. You can see a blade in there waiting to get red hot.
As you can see I lined the walls with some thin pieces of firebrick so as not to melt the thin (2mm thick) metal plate walls. I got the pieces it from a broken square tube like fire brick which is used for making chimenies. I have another two left so when they break, I can cut new pices out of those ones.
I use a mixture of charcoal and mineral coal so I can get more heat (about 50% of each or so) and light it with a few pices of those white tablets for BBQ's.
The best thing about this set up is that it doesn't use a lot of fuel, you can fire it up and let it cool down a bit while you dress up your shop and when you finish, even with the thing still hot, you can (carefully) put it inside over a non flamable surface and go home while it cools down by itselft.
Well, I hope this helps anyone thinking about making a forge himself. I bet any of you can make one like that (or better) way cheaper than me. Feel free to criticize it as it will surely help me improving it.
Mikel
