Portable Coal Forge

Rick Marchand

Rick Marchand

Donkey on the Edge
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Jan 6, 2005
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Hey folks,
I finally came across a working portable coal forge at a decent price(for around here, anyway) and snagged it. There was an oldtimer blacksmith who recently passed and stated in his will that he wanted it to go to someone who would use it(my kind of guy!... thank you, SIR). It came with a dozen or so tongs, car spings a hood and a 9ft stack. I plan to make an eclectic Japanese/Western type traditional/rustic forge when we get our new place. A few weeks ago I bought a sweet Royal blower and intend on making a standup version of a Japanese trough forge. It will be permantent, so I figure this little guy will serve me well for demos away from the shop.

It cleaned up well. I totally disassmbled the blower, cleaned/regreased it. This morning I wire brushed and painted the frame and bowl and just installed the liner(stove cement, ash, vermiculite). I read that a liner is not necessary but can prolong the life of the forge... it came to me with a liner.

Does anyone use one of these? I plan to use hardwood char coal as mineral coal is scarce around these parts.

Rick

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Cool looking set up. In my limited experiance it seems to me to be a well thought out, bigger version of a brake drum forge. Let us know how it works for ya! Nice score, and I am sure you will put it to good use, making its previous owner happy!


-Xander
 
Hi Rich!
Congrats on your new tools. Nice that the departed smith wanted the craft perpetuated, as opposed to gping to the antique mall.
I used to have a similar forge, but with a deeper pan & made by Buffalo. Worked fine, and so will yours.
 
Check out some of the old Hershel House dvds. He made knives, axes, and a lot of harware for his handmade rifles and flintlocks with one.
 
Those forges are designed for mineral coal. A couple things, if you are going to use wood charcoal. The refractory liner is very important for efficiency, to get the most out of the wood/charcoal. Without it, you'll burn up the charcoal really fast. The liner should come up around the sides, not just the bottom. I haven't tried the mixture you used, but it sounds O.K. The other thing is the depth of the pan. For charcoal, it really needs to be deeper, otherwise you wind up with a very oxidizing atmosphere. There needs to be at least 4-5 inches of coals under the steel and between it and the air intake. So, I recommend putting a some sort of rim extended upwards around it to add some depth.
 
Thanks Tai! Great info. Maybe I'll trash the liner I have and get a lighter vermiculite mix to make the deep bowl you suggest. I am worried about weight, so a light castable refractory is important. Any home recipes?
 
I'd say just wet down some wood ash and pack it in to form a duck nest, maybe add some type of binder, or ceramic wool thermal blanket saturated with some type of high temperature ceramic slip or slurry which would be very light weight.

After you use wood ash for a while it does absorb iron oxide and clump together.
 
Yeah... a few layers of kaowool with a slurry coating would give me the volume with less weight... good thinking, Tai.:thumbup:

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Nice score Rick!

I have seen a couple of those for sale locally with a similar design, hopefully next time I see one I will pick it up!

My neighbor had one that was from his grandfathers smithy. He used it to make a fire for fun in the backyard, lol we'd get that thing going! It was like a blowtorch if you cranked it hard.
 
That looks good Rick, but I think saturating the wool would be better than just a glazing. It will bind it together better without adding much weight... be more durable. I'd go with a thin slurry and saturate it. You could add a glazing to that. If you pile the coals up high, it will probably be deep enough.
 
Rick
How about a movable/removable frame to let you use mid weight firebricks? You could then change the size/shape of the ducks nest, and remove it all for transport.
 
When i built mine, i used red clay as the base. I made walls out of hard fire brick to give me a deeper bed. The nice thing about that is you can take the "walls" off from it and make it far more easily movable. I made a huge mistake and left that forge at the last house i lived at when i moved...now i am building a new one.
 
Congrats on the good find. I have one similar in size. Mine was made in 1902, has a Champion blower and it has 4 legs instead of 3. The guy I bought it from called it a rivet forge. Right now it is the only forge I have. I burn mostly coal from Utah in it. I start the fire with a little bit of wood scraps. Mine is not lined and has little rust on it. The guy I bought it from used it in his barn. I also just use it in my barn.
 
I didn't have enough Kaowool left, so I mixted up some castable refractory (perlite, furnace cement, ash) and made a bowl. It turned out to be 4" deep. Then I got silly and made some fire tending tools.:p

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Great to know the old man's will was being carried out. I'm sure he'd be proud as punch to know that Wilder Tools is carrying on with his gear.

What brand furnace cement did you use? I'm building a charcoal forge, but can't find any fireplace cement locally... but could be missing it at the box stores. I almost bought kitty litter as a substitute just last night!
 
I used Miracle-Gro Perlite, Imperial Furnace Cement(2700F) and wood ash collected from my firepit. You have to add water sparingly and mix the heck out of it. The mix should not appear to be "wet" when you cast/pack it. if the perlite is completely saturated, it won't work as well. Continue to mix until you are sure the bonding agent(cement) is evenly distributed... then mix it even more:p If I was using it to line a propane forge, I'd use the 3000F cement.
 
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I'm making my first little forge just for the purposes of HT'ing 1080 knives. I'm using an old 1 gallon pot with a pipe going through the side with holes drilled in the pipe. Then sealed to the top of the pot is an old prying pan with holes drill in the center of it.

I plan on hooking my 3 gallon shopvac blower up to it.

Where this relates to your post is - I've seen tons of vids online of similarly built mini forges but none of them had any kid of refractory lining in the bowl like yours - do you think mine would need it?
 
From what I read, you can use them without liners. The manufacturer's suggest it to prolong the life of the forge. I originally lined mine with 1" just to get a bit of a pot but Tai is right, for even heat, you need more coal between the steel and blower vent. A knifemaker does more than just heat and beat. We need more control. Coal forges are still a bit foreign to me... so I have to side with the experienced guys. That is why I built it up. If a deeper pot was built into the table, I wouldn't necessarily need to line it.
 
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