forging

[Omega]

two questions about forging (im hoping to try my hand at it soon) can i use fireplace mortor to line my forge, and for charcoal can i just throw some wood (probably pallets) in the forge get the file going and keep restocking the fire as needed, or do i need to go through making the charcoal first?


thanks bill

[cricket]

Fireplace mortor should work fine, or you can line it with a thick coat of hardwood ashes like the Tai Goo style forge...The charcoal can be easily got through Walmart, I think they call it "cowboy charcoal" unless you've just got you're heart set on making it yourself....hope this helps...

[Omega]

is the cowbay charcoal ready to use or do you still have to get r## of some of the gas that it produces?

thanks bill

[Omega]

this is the forge ill be making
as far as the fire do i just dump the charcoal right in (nothing over the holes) and toss in a match? do i use any kind of accelerant?

thanks bill

[hammerdownnow]

I recomend you buy the v##eo that goes with those forge plans. If a picture is worth a thousand words then a v##eo is worth a million. A 20 dollar investment will pick you up and drop kick you 3 to five years into the future.

[AwP]

The Cowboy brand charcoal (or any other natural/lump charcoal, not briquettes) is ready to go as is. You probably won't get it lit with just a match, I usually ball up some newspaper then dump the charcoal on top of that, on damp days I've been known to use lighter flu##. You can also do the wood fire like you sa##, adding wood to the top as is coals at the bottom, but it's hard to keep up with enough wood. What I do sometimes is use charcoal but suppliment it with wood as I go.

[Brett Holmes]

i use wood just for heat treating , but i have found that there always seems to be too much fire and not enough coal. and nothing i seem to do fixes that. i once used charcoal that i colected after a neighbours bonfire and i think it was much easier, especially when topping it up. i thoroughly recomend charcoal but you can get away with wood.
ive never forged anthing and have only tried to heat treat a couple of blades so my info is from a newbie, but i thought i would just throw in my .02
brett

[Omega]

thanks for all the help and info guys. someday i hope to try my hand at damascus, any ##ea if this set up well get me to welding temps?


thanks bill

[sdcb27]

I made a charcoal retort for a blacksmithing demo from this website and it worked very very well and simple to build. It has about a 90% turn over rate from wood to charcoal wich is really high. I d##nt have it in a enclosure tho and figured out that if it had been my turn over rate would have been better and easier to stay lit. At any rate charcoal gets very very hot well above welding temp. it is cleaner then coal, the down size is, it burns faster and so you need alot of it


http://www.twinoaksforge.com/BLADSMI...20CHARCOAL.htm

[Omega]

## love to do that but where i live we can only burn leaves or wood maybe twice a year, i dont think they would make an exception for my forging endeavor

thanks bill

[hammerdownnow]

Bill,My email notified me and left a copy of your post before you edited it. Good point you made about how the charcoal retort works. The smoke from a real "retort" is reduced because the gasses escaping from the wood are what causes the flames and most of the smoke. Ins##e the drum, in the low oxygen atmosphere, the gasses are not able to burn as flame and escape unburned into the atmosphere. If they are routed by exahust tubes from the drum to the fire, they ignite there and work as fuel to suppliment the wood that is burning under the drum. Neat system. I want to build one someday.

[Omega]

if i coulddo it where i live ## make one just to see if i could make it work........


bill

[Omega]

ok just bought almost everything i need all thats is everything...... one big question....what can i use to line the tub? i looked for fireplace mortor , home depot doesnt have it, and i believe ive heard cement wont work, what can i use that will last and wont send shards flying towards the house? also are charcoal (not coal) brickettes ok to use or do i need the more natural looking charcoal?

thanks, bill

[AwP]

I use wood ash and my forge is based off the same one yours is, not that it looks much like it. Wood ash works great, but it's hard to get enough, it's surprising how little ash you get once you pack it all in. You could use try clay, or even dirt will work though it might smoulder the first few times you use it until all the organic material is burned out.

You don't want briquettes for forging, they're just a little bit of charcoal mixed with crappy coal fines, sawdust, and binders to hold it all together. There's usually alot of sulfer in it too, which isn't good for the steel. Just to try hitting hot steel you can use it, but don't forge anything you particularly care about with it.

[Omega]

with this design do i have to worry about the pipe that is exposed to the fire warping or will it be ok?


thanks bill