New forge pictures

Sam Salvati

Sam Salvati

Joined
Aug 6, 2007
Messages
5,060
Here is some shots of the new forge I built up and running. Not the first fire, she is pretty well broken in now and working great! I have yet to open it up to it's maximum heat yet, no need, but i feel heating up 4 inch square would be no problem in it(that's a BIG billet:D). I have worked out a bunch of the quirks so far, and got the forge running with 1/2 less coal than I did when I started to use it so it runs pretty efficient now. Also got the supports for the legs, act double as a tong rack, they go all around the whole forge, made from 1/4 thick by 1 inch wide mild. The lip around the forge is 1/4 thick 4 inch wide, top table is 1/4 thick, 3 foot wide by 4 and 1/2 feet long. Holds a 50 pound bag of coal right on the deck ready to be shoveled on, no bending to shovel from a coal bin or scoop from a bucket. Here's the pictures.

Very nice side draft!
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Me in the forge.
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very nice, im building a forge but have been flurting with the idea of scraping the gas forge and doing a charcoal forge. what working time could expect to get out of charcoal. is ther an advantage to eather gas or charcoal.
 
I have only used charcoal a few times, i use regular smithing coal regularly, and some times when i feel like spoiling myself some smithing coke. If you can find Charcoal by the bag(instead of making it) you are 10 steps ahead of the game, if not you will have to make it yourself which in a business environment can be a bit troublesome. But charcoal is by far one of the best to use, just a bit tricky to get. You could use Coke or Coal, again if they are available in your area, coke burns much cleaner and hotter than coal, but coal is usually cheaper, and once you get used to working with it and building your fire a very efficient heat source, gives a faster heat than most other fuels. Gas is the easiest, still working on building a gas forge myself mostly for heat treating and production work where you can stick 10 bars in with it set at the right PSI/heat and then pull and hammer, pull and hammer, pull and hammer without worrying too much about overheating one or the others. I personally LOVE coal, the smell, the heat, the look, and am used to working with it.
 
i just feal that with the price of propane today you cant beat 100LBs of coal for 7.00 bucks. what kind of coal do i want. i live in utah and incase you dident know we have a little coal in the hills :). does it burn longer than charcoal. any help would be great, i want to make a portable forge.
 
I would say you can make coal last longer than charcoal yes. For home heating 1 ton of coal equals about 180 gallons of fuel oil. fuel oil is $4 a gallon while a ton of coal is about $180, do the math:D.


You want Soft coal, not the hard stuff they use for home heating. Some say the best stuff to get which is of course hard to get is coal from the Pocahontas 3 vein down South somewhere, but don't hold out. Just get some "soft" coal or "blacksmith's coal", ask around at the local heating supply places or hardware store they should be able to help you out. You might want to look up these fellahs, they will for SURE be able to point you in the right direction:

BONNEVILLE FORGE COUNCIL
Pres: Kennen Hiss
265 Valley View Drive
Tooele, UT 84074
(435) 882-2128


Ed: Steve A. Larsen
2288 North 1200 West
Clinton, UT 84015
(801) 773-3359
starforged@comcast.net

Good luck JT!
 
i think there is just somthing about working with coal that feads the soul. thanks
 
Very nice sam! Have you made any projects with your new forge?

Well Jarod I worked with charcoal for about two years on and off and just switched over to gas.
Charcoal is easy to use and clean. But you have to keep the charcoal dry or you will have a very bad time working with it.
I have never personally worked with coal. Coal contains more impurities than charcoal or propane but if you keep a clean burning fire or buy coke this should not be an issue.
Propane is the gift to us from the fire gods. Very clean, easy to use, easy to judge the temperature of steel while it is heating, and easier to heat steel evenly.

Propane is my choice because of the ease of use and it is easy to access.
 
Hehe well said propane is indeed a gift from the fire gods:). I have been making tongs and hammers and stuff, tried a blade yesterday and it worked out great! Gonna be turning out a sword soon from some 1084, big double edge broadsword, huge blade too a hair under 4 feet long. To test out the kmg:D.
 
last night i was thinking about going with a vertical gas forge because i am planing on getting back into damascus. but i will also use it for heat treating. any good places to buy a vertical forge?
 
You could make your own. I made mine using a reciprocating saw, a knife, a bucket, one 30 gallon barrel, insawool, satanite, ITC-100 and about 3 hours. Total cost including shipping, burner, and blower was about $300. I have enough satanite, ITC-100, and insawool left over to build a second smaller forge so it was a pretty good deal.

Nice Sam, glad its working well for you. Dang that beast will be huge! My grinder just went on the fritz so its time for me to upgrade to a 2x72 but KMG is a wee bit too expensive for right now.
 
Sam
Nice forge. I've got my coal forge in the driveway under 2 feet of "upstate sunshine" waiting until snowmelt to mount the blower. When I used to run coal it was amazing how much heat a little bit of coal made! For a while I couldn't get decent coal, so I switched to propane and the fire gods were indeed amused by how happy I was with their gift, but little by little they have been taunting me with the call of the primordial. Atmospheric propane is a wonderful clean beautiful tame fire, useful, predictable, not really gonna surprise you, but hot enough to get basic work done, blower driven propane is just a little wild, kind of a tease, but delivers in the end. Kinda like a hot redhead, expensive but worth it. Coal is reaching back to the primordial smith tending the fire, a little fire for small work a big fire for big work, and if you want to forgeweld the horn back onto your anvil you just make a bigger fire. Coal is inexpensive intense heat that you can work as big as you want to, and like the primordial gods, if you don't pay it proper respect it will take its sacrifice.
Sam may Brighid, Creidhne, and Thor bless your hearth.

-Page
 
Thanks Page:D! Got a bunch of "downstate sunshine" today here. Coal is IMHO a very versatile heat source, as you say you can go from welding 1/4 inch square bar, on up to welding 2 inch square blocks together, and even larger. GOTTA Love those analogies Page;). The new forge is working out very well, i am happy with the whole thing, eats a bit more coal than my last little rivet forge, but the difference in performance is night and day. Page you are welcome in my shop anytime!
 
You're lucky we got the grinder out before the snow [and now 3" packed sleet] otherwise it would be a springtime project !!
 
Yeah we got hit pretty good! No packable wet snow though, I WANNA BUILD SNOWMEN, and then cut them with swords.
 
They brought a front end loader this morning to try to clear the packed sleet off the road !! I have some Japanese instructions on testing swords with prisoners[the good old days] .I don't know if if it works the same for snowmen !
 
mete said:
They brought a front end loader this morning to try to clear the packed sleet off the road !! I have some Japanese instructions on testing swords with prisoners[the good old days] .I don't know if if it works the same for snowmen !
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Yeah our usual plow guy told us one of his trucks broke on the thick solid chunky ice that's all over on people's driveways and stuff.
 
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