just a question, but where is the torch tip? if it's inside the chamber, it wont burn properly, (at least mine wouldn't) it's gotta be flush or even a little back from the inside chamber, to create the right air flow and atmosphere (.....................eeeh i think?)
andrew
Wayne Goddard says the tip goes "about one inch from the outside of the hole". If you can set the burner hole to come in tangent to the fire hole, the flame will swirl and heat the inside of the fire hole more evenly.
The size of the fire hole will effect the how hot a brick forge will get. The smaller the chamber, the higher the temperature. It's sort of a trade off between a convienient size and not as much heat.
I've heard of folks using two Bernzomatic JTH-7's a slightly larger chamber and more bricks for length but have never seen a picture of one or heard how well they worked.
I built a brick forge designed after Wayne Goddard's article in
Blade's Guide to making knives. I used two bricks side to side with another cut in half side to side (one half chamer hole in each brick) to make the extension that allows either a longer or shorter chamber (chamber hole half way through the 1/2 length pair of bricks).
Using one JTH-7, I get yellow-orange so forging heat is easy to reach. I like the fact a person can get more heat in a particular part of the blade by moving that area to the burner hole. Yeah, a person doesn't have the luxury of nice even heat in the entire chamber but the ability to direct more heat to a specific area is valuable to me.
I HT in the brick forge but turn it down some after heating it up at full flame. The lower heat gives better control of even heating. I've normalized, spheroidized anneal, stress relieved, and soaked for 10 + minutes before quench in this forge. Brick forges have limitations (no big blades) but not very many.
Mike
