PICTURES!!! My forge, anvil, burner, and more!!!

If it was concrete, it'd be poppin all over the place, and it wouldn't insulate worth anything. It's Kaowool (white sheet that feels like fiberglass sheet), with a thin coating of ITC-100, which has a similar consistency and color to concrete.

It does take a while for the entire thing to heat though, and if I wanted to cool it, it'd take several seconds at a lower temperature for it to cool at all. There is heat escaping constantly, so the temp that you put the burner at is the temp that the forge will generally be.
 
ooooo. not concrete. lol, excuse my ignorance. If I annoy you with questions please let me know so I can stop being a thorn in your side. lol. But thanks for answering my questions thus far, I've been learning alot.

Logan
 
L.K.- have no fear- I'm a noob too. Questions are muy bueno. Imagine if you hadn't asked and ended up with a concrete, propane forge...:eek: .
 
logan, welcome aboard! the concrete lookin stuff is the ITC-100 that peter was talkin about. it's a paint-on type of coating that goes ontop of usually insiwool or kaowool which are two different kinds of refractory insulation. Steve Agocs uses insiwool in the tutorial i sent you, but in stead of the ITC-100, he uses Satanite. it's all made to do the same thing which is contain heat. Darren Ellis Sells it all, check out his page: http://www.elliscustomknifeworks.com/
Alex

Edited to add: Peter i dig your avil idea. ingenuity at it's best. :thumbup:
 
Alex
Thanks. A very wise person told me about this place and encouraged me to join, lol. (He did ya'll)

Peter
How often do you check your email? I just sent ya somethin?
 
Peter_E_Ryt said:
J.- no satanite, but I gave it a day to cure and dry.
Here are a few pics of the door:
CIMG2113.jpg


CIMG2111.jpg
Click to expand...

How many coats did you put on there?
 
On the door-2... kinda. It goes like the: thin layer over door, kaowool slapped on over ITC-100, and another coat of ITC-100. On the forge, just one, over the Kaowool.
 
Tim- yes, she is one. She's allot more layed back than our other Ridgeys.

Alex- thanks, I've been looking for a cheap alternative to an expensive anvil that still works, and this is it.

J.- I got the pipe from one of my dad's job sites.

I got to forging today, and I've found out a couple of things
1. The angle of my burner creates hotspots, so next time I'll change the angle of my burner
2. I don't have a large enough air intake now that the set screws are in. Will drilling a couple of holes on the pipe help this (The set screws on the T)
3. A 2lb hammer is slightly too light (I had to move to the 3 pounder about half way through)
4. It takes a while to forge a knife- in my 25 minutes, all I did was extend the rebar two inches by flattening, and getting a small point on it. Is this exceptionally slow? One of my problems might have been having to go back and fix all of the mistakes I made while hammering.

Good stuff! Next weekend, I'll have a good hour or so to forge out a knife!
 
Take note that I know little about actual forging.

Maybe it is taking you a long time to forge because its not geting hot enough. With my oversized monster forge it wasn't geting hot enough, and took me a long time to move any metal. Now with my smaller forge it gets very hot and it a lot easyer and faster to work the steel.
 
How much faster Jimmy? Could you give an example- thanks! I can get the metal orange hot, I'm just wondering if I'm not hitting it hard enough, or if I'm doing right. I hit it harder than I would a nail, but not pounding it with all my might.
 
if you're wanting to speed the process up a bit, you'll probably want to get it to a yellow-orange, but not yellow. you'll be able to move metal a heckuva lot quicker than if it was a duller orange. you also might want to try hitting it a little harder. don't go so far that you can't control the hammer tho. hammering on a piece of metal involves a different technique than poundin a nail. your arm stays close to your body most of the time. this makes it more controlable. your concrete bucket anvil probably doesn't have much spring to it, but the trick is to get a rhythm going. let the hammer rebound off the metal after you strike, and use this momentum to pick the hammer back up for your next strike. that might make it a little easier for you.
Alex
 
Cool- thanks Alex!

BTW. I've got another question- how long does it take yall to heat up the metal to orange?
 
Peter_E_Ryt said:
Cool- thanks Alex!

BTW. I've got another question- how long does it take yall to heat up the metal to orange?
Click to expand...

After my forge heats up it takes about 30 - 45 seconds. That is after the billet had gotten hot once before, and I beat on it then put it back in. (not from "room temp".)

(However due to a design flaw of my forge the flame is hiting the billet like a rosebud on a torch.) <== I am sloving this problem soon.
 
Thanks!
I found out what one of the problems with my forge was. At 5psi I get a rich flame. With the set screws installed the air intake is too small, so I think that I'll drill a few holes, and then use the chokes for controll.

J.- It takes about that long for mine too, but that's only when holding up to the burner- so I'll see if I can work that intake dynamics to get a more even heat.
 
Peter,Use a bigger hammer when flattening the bar of steel to begin with,switch to the lighter hammers as the metal gets thinner.Try flattening a good length of the bar before you start putting in a point or tappering the blade.Orange is a little cool but not to bad a little hotter should help just dont over heat the steel.We can discuss this better Thursday in the chat room.

At least you got to forge and have some fun.
Bruce
 
J.- you'll see some pics by this weeend. I'll either have some free time in the evening during the week, or Friday night.

Bruce- thanks for the tips. I'll be there Thursday!
 
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