Cheap, Cheap Forge question

[LoneGoose]

Obvious newbie on next to nothing budget here:

I am just starting in knife making...have 4 blades ground out, but need to harden them. I heard that just trying to do it with a torch will be uneven, and may not even generate enough heat to get it to hardening temp.

The book $50 knife shop suggests getting soft insulating fire brick and hollowing it out...I can not find it anywhere around here...and buying online is putting it over what I want to spend right now (due to the cost of shipping bricks).

I can find regular fire bricks locally for $1.75 each.

Can I get away with making a small enclosure out of fire bricks (no cement, no insulation, just set on top of each other to make a small chamber w/o a door), and harden my blades with a propane torch heating up the inside?

I know this is not the "recommended" method...but will it work? I can't afford to spend the $12 right now if it wont work.

Thanks for your patience with my ignorance!

[JCPollard]

It will work if you can find a way to keep the bricks tight so you don't have a lot of heat loss. They shift easy if not setup properly. The firebricks will come in handy later on when you upgrade. I would advise from my limited(very little)experience you take your time and have everything ready to go.Quench , tempering oven or however you will do it. try a piece of scrap. Have a magnet ready but remember it needs to go hotter .How much depends on the steel. Knife making supplies can really start to add up. So being frugal isn't a bad thing if you are patient enough to acquire what you need. . I am sure someone will chime in with better advise . Good luck , be safe and keep coming back. Also take some pics if you can so .

James

[rscoffey]

I built an adobe forge with a black pipe in the bottom. Got the idea/plan off of one of the forums. I then used the same kind of firebrick you have to create sort of a dome over the forge. Laid one on each side of the forge, one at the end and a couple over the top. Sort of created my own oven. I used a hair dryer to get the coal hot. The trick is to be able to control the heat. Learning experience: I actually melted the filework on a about a 1/4" blade I was trying to HT!. So be careful. Also, tongs are a very good thing.

As JC says, make sure you have everything handy before you start, quench, magnet etc.

Bob

[Pairomedicsfish]

I made mine from firebrick I bought at Cemex. The brick was about two bucks a pop. I used an old tabletop grill that I gutted as a base. I arranged my bricks in an oven format and built my burner from pipe and scrounged brass nipples and fitting. I formated my burner loosely off of designs found on forums.....the Zoeller burner I think....I would guess that I have about twenty bucks in my propane forge. The brake drum forge using coal is my next project,.possibly today.....for coal, I have found a supply on a nearby rail line....after a ten minute walk, I filled a five gallon bucket...Search on brake drum forges and you will find a ton of info....if done with some patience, it could be nearly free.

[Eli Jensen]

It depends on what kind of propane torch you have. I have the Bernzomatic TS-8000 and it works like a champ I use it to melt bronze up to 1000 gr. If you are talking about a $10 plumbers torch, that will not work, I've tried.

[Hayden H]

Try a Mapp gas torch, I've hardened smallish knives with 5 firebricks and a Mapp torch held gently in a vise let the bricks soak for awhile until they were glowing at the surface then set the blade in. Just be sure to use gloves and vise grips, needle nose, something to get your fingers away from the 1600+ brick