Question for the forgers: burner orientation?

L

Loren Patterson

Joined
Dec 16, 2000
Messages
10
My question is: those who forge your own blades with a propane forge, what is your preferred burner orientaion? The forge being a horizontal cylinder and the burners coming in from either directly on top aiming the heat directly down or the burners coming from the side creating the "atmospheric" setup. The problem i've found with the burners oriented from the side, which was my first propane forge, was that the blades heated more quickly on the side with the burner. this normally isn't a problem with regular forging where the pressure is high enough so that the forge becomes nearly the same temperature throughout and brings pieces up to bright orange at roughly the same time but when the pressure is set low enough so that the blades will only reach a bright red for heat treating operations, they heat unevenly, because the forge doesn't fully heat up. I'm building a new forge and i'm considering orienting the burners from the top and I was curious as to how everyone else who forges their blades has theirs. I know of atleast one bladesmith who supports each orientation method, so i was curious what others prefer.
Thankyou for the help
- Loren
 
This is how I did my forge.
http://home.flash.net/~dwwilson/forge/fgpl.html
fgpl.html



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INDIAN GEORGE
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumList?u=261337

http://www.onlineknifeshow.com/maker36.html

[This message has been edited by indian george (edited 12-28-2000).]

[This message has been edited by indian george (edited 12-28-2000).]
 
A friend and i have built about a dozen or more gas forges with different burner setups. IMO it makes no difference in temperature how you install the burner, because it is not the flame of the burner who heats the steel but the infrared heat from the glowing isolation. (so its better to get a very bright, i.e. white isolation). By the way, the coldest spot in my gas forge is where the burner flame hits the isolation. Where burner installation comes into play is the gas flow. We install our burners kinda tangential to the (round) isolation with a light tilt towards the forge opening, thus creating a swirling gas flow. This way the burner runs very quiet and smooth.

Achim

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumList?u=575309
 
I use a Mankel from Centaur Forge. It has a 3 burner manifold and uses a fan. It shoots straight down from the top to a rounded bottom which seems to create 3 swirls. The sides are closed off except on one end. I use another blower at the door that blows the exhaust away so I dont burn my pinkies. It takes awhile to come up to welding heat (2300) but is very consistant and controlable. The floor is castable refractory, sides are light-weight firebrick, top is kao-wool. I have an electronic pyrometer probe inserted to help maintain consistant temps. The only thing I may change is to put a reastat on the fan instead of the adjustable door it came with.
 
i use a vertical forge with the burner at the bottom. Donn fogg`s style!!

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i keep grinding and grinding and it is still too short!!
 
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