Tuyere liner

J

JoeyNumbers

Joined
Apr 24, 2007
Messages
26
Hello all, I'm building my first knife forge. I settled on a simple design.

An old charcoal Weber grill with a tube running into the tuyere leading to a hair dryer (I got it for free and it works). I'm having an issue with the tuyere though. I have heard adobe is good to use to form the tuyere, but its a tad hard for me to find any clay in my city. Can I use any concrete to form it? Do I need something more specific, something easy to find? Thank you.
 
I use wood ash. Just wet it down and pack it in. It insulates the forge container and the tuyere. I also think there are some advantages to a soft (powder) lining in terms of flexibility and insulating parts of the blade like points and tangs by running them into the liner. This helps focus and localize the heats when needed.

Here's a diagram, but the tuyere should drop down into the forge at an angle to help keep it from clogging for a side blast. And of course, don’t use galvanized pipe for the tuyere.

forge.jpg
 
Thank you for that, Tai. Should I sift the ash so its very fine and how wet should it be? Also, my pipe will run up the bottom middle of the tuyere with holes in the top of the pipe.
 
Yes, sifting it is a good idea. It just needs to be damp enough to pack, but not like pancake batter.
 
You can buy clay in the form of cheap kitty litter. Not the stuff that clumps, but the cheap $2 bag at walmart. Mix 1/2 kitty litter and 1/2 sand with a couple handfulls of wood ash.

Wet to thick paste and put in forge.

I waited for mine to dry but it took about a month to do so. I've heard you can light a fire right away and it will dry it very fast.

Good luck
 
I wet down the ash and packed it in and I'm shocked. I cleaned out two fireplaces and still the forge isn't full, haha. I'm also finding the ash isn't drying very fast because I may have wet it too much, can I speed up the process or is this a case of "patience is a virtue"? Thank you.
 
I thought that applied to your mixture. Plus I still need more ashes to fill it up completely and form the tuyere.
 
My first forge was very similar to what you're making. I used a piece of 1 1/2" black pipe from Home Depot with about 12" sticking out the side to help keep the end cool. I used some flexible dryer ducting to connect the tuyere to the hair dryer. My mixture was 1/3 wood ash, 1/3 cheap clay kitty litter and 1/3 sand.
 
Thank you, Tai and jawilder. I still need more ash, haha. Has to be one of the strangest requests I ever made to my friends.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top