Hi all well we gave Plain ol Bills forge a run through this weekend and it worked great. It came up to welding heat very fast and held the heat exceptionally well at low psi on the propane. He put what I think he refered to as a flame keeper in the end of the pipe that entered the forge. The forge would hold a flame down to 1/2 psi on the propane. Needless to say I was impressed and will be building one. I held a small hammer in during the weekend and everyone had a great time including myself and all took home damascus. If you haven't held one or attended one you should do it. First off it was a nice break from working by myself and secondly by Sunday the ideas and techniques were flowing and I was spending more time keeping out of everyones way than really demonstrating. Great experience!!!!!!!!

Sounds great. Where might a guy look at plans/pictures of this forge?

Where was the hammer-in? Who demonstrated what?

Thanks,

John

Good to hear it went well Tom. Sounds like a blast. When are you having your next one????
Jon

Well I think he posted some pics under the tool forum. As for the next hammer in I will have I dont know but the group of makers I had over are going to take turns with hosting a these small hammer ins. The next one will be at Roger Doles shop and he is going to demonstrate how he makes those super smooth folders. At this hammer in I made damascus all day on Saturday since I was the only damascus maker. We all swapped jigs and misc shop tricks as well as discussions about the knifemaking industry in general and each others thoughts on which direction we personally wanted to go with our knives. By Sunday I had Bill helping with the damascus, one guy making his first knife and everyone else just fell into a spot. Most of the guys involved had only made a couple knives and the rest wanted to see a press in action forging damascus. All in all it was a blast. Even I who did most of the demos learned a new way to forge a specific knife shape from a newbie who was playing around. I also ended up creating a new mosaic pattern that I have never done just by listening to the bunch talk when I was drawing one up on paper before I forged it. These are the type of get togethers that will expand all of our talents from the newbie to the high end maker.

There is a link on the next page under "New damascus forge" if you want to see some pics of it guys.

This thing ran whisper quiet and really surprised everyone (including me) on how quiet it ran. Did not fall apart like someone else's did (grin). It helps to have the gas line into the forge before you attempt to light it however (kept wondering why it would not light and Tom kept telling me to shut off the gas).