should I buy this forge?

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psycho78

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Jun 17, 2006
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Hey guys. I'm pretty new to knifemaking, and I'm starting to get some new equipment to finally get serious. I ordered my Coote 2x72 and it should be here this week. I'm now looking for my next most important piece of equipment. A forge.

I'm a "plug and play" kind of guy with limited tools and space to work, so I'm just looking into a forge that I can just start using right out of the box without the frustration of trial and error of trying to make my own.

I saw this on ebay, and I have the extra money saved back to buy these kinds of things (my knifemaker fund:D ) so I was wondering if this is a good forge to start out with for heat treating and MAYBE some light forging.

What do you guys think?

http://cgi.ebay.com/BLACKSMITH-LP-G...DVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item200072566399
 
My advice is build your own. That one will have hot and cold spots. Building your own is more rewarding, and cheaper. I built one for less than $30.
 
I'm stubborn.

Building my own is not entirely out of the question, but I just want to go ahead and get started. Building my own is not the most desirable option for me right now.
 
Thats what I thought too. Now I wish I hadn't been. I would still shop around if you do decide to buy. Best wishes.
 
He offered me a great price for the forge double insul. and a rear opening with plug. I am going to get the T-Rex Hyperburner and it should rock.
 
I thought about that one too.

I just want to spend minimal time tinkering with and tweaking these sort of things.
 
I just do not like the direct down path of the flame. By putting a burner at an angle it will swirl around and help eliminate hot spots.
 
I personaly like the Chile forge design, but it should have the burrner entering more towards the horizontal to roll the flame better. That said it's pretty easy to build your own with nothing more than pipe fittings, some Kwoal, and some ITC-100 and satanite. I bought a rool of insuwool about 3 years ago for 75$ and still have over half left from reling my damscus forge. Flux eats the linning up and it took me a while to figure out to use the itc-100 and satanite to protect it. As for the pipe I use a Freon bottle I cut the ends out and cut a hole for the burner. I use a hair dryer for the blower and an acetalyn regulator for the propane bottle.
 
I have a tutorail on my site on building one. If you lived close you could come over here and I would show you how to do it.:D ;)
 
That EBAY forge looks GREAT!....

It also looks like it's got all you need and is ready to connect to the gas and go.
The price seems about right, (I dont know much about the price of such things,as I have only my own to judge from)

It looks like it could really be a good one for a knife maker...
 
Just briefly scouting through the description I noticed that there's no mention of anything covering the Inswool... that's not a very good thing. The fibers that will be released when it's fired up are really nasty for you, and the Inswool will continue to break down over time, unless it's coated with something (Rigidizer, Satanite, etc.).
The burners are really at about the worst input angle they could be, too... dunno. I'm thinking, once you get this and take the steps to make it a real forge you're going to be asking yourself why you didn't just make one from the get-go.

I built my first goofy little forge out of 10" wide aluminum flashing (like you'd use under your gutters on the eaves). I just rolled up a length of it(maybe 6 feet or so), drilled a few holes and riveted it so the aluminum wouldn't unroll, cut a hole in the side for a torch inlet, and lined the pig with 1" Inswool. Including dry time for the 2 layers of Satanite I put on (which I accelerated dry-time of by putting the whole thing in the oven at 300 degrees), the entire ordeal took less than 4 hours. If I had a total of $45 invested in it, I'd be stunned. More importantly, there was almost NO hotspots, and it was easy to use.

... just my 2 cents, take it or leave it! Good luck, however you chose to go!
 
Does anyone have and use a chile forge? I'm considering the two burner model and would like to find out from a user if these work well for damascus welding.
 
i am in process of making the freon type forge found at the hybridburner.com website. my main problem is getting the burner i have been waiting 1 month so far and hope to hear from rex soon regarding getting this burner made and delivered. From the last email i had, he was out of the country and should be back in next few days.
 
Dakota 11 said:
i am in process of making the freon type forge found at the hybridburner.com website. my main problem is getting the burner i have been waiting 1 month so far and hope to hear from rex soon regarding getting this burner made and delivered. From the last email i had, he was out of the country and should be back in next few days.
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Thanks for the heads up. I was looking to get one in the next week or two. I guess I will have to wait.
 
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