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Ed Caffrey's Workshop Talk to Ed Caffrey ... The Montana Bladesmith! Tips, tricks and more from an ABS Mastersmith.

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  #1  
Old 08-01-2008, 05:51 PM
wes wes is offline
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forge

I want to do more work with carbon steel and not stainless. Is there a good place to get a forge, or blueprints on making one? What size should I look for, most of my blades will be 10 inches or less
thanks
Gene
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Old 08-01-2008, 06:35 PM
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Ray Rogers Ray Rogers is offline
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Geez, what a question! You just asked about the most commonly discussed subject around here. Use the Search key and look for the threads where this has been discussed before.

Aside from that, you'll surely get a few dozen answers directly. Here's a few to get you started. You can buy forges here: http:www.elliscustomknifeworks.com or from Centaur Forge or from many other places. But, it's a lot more fun - and cheaper by far - to build your own. You can see some basics on my site at:

http://www.rayrogers.com/forge2.htm or http://www.rayrogers.com/mini_forge.htm

as well as on the website of almost anybody else you see posting in this forum or the Damascus forum .........


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Old 08-01-2008, 09:20 PM
Doug Lester Doug Lester is offline
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Zoeller Forge is another place to look for forge plans, burners, and parts. I've dealt with Ellis also and he's also a real good supplier. Building a forge is not hard. The body is pretty easy unless you're someone like me who could complicate the recipe for mud. Even then it's not too hard. I second Ray's opinion that you can build a forge for less than you can buy one, and it will probably work better to boot.

If you want to go pug ugly simple, a solid fuel forge is as about as simple as it gets. They can be built out of common and cheap items that can be found in any tool-in-a-box store and the pet department at the grocery store. The down side is that are messier and take more fire tending. Gas forges are cleaner and easier to use, though there are those who might take exception to the latter.

Gas forges have two types of burners, venturi and blown. The advantage to a venturi burner is that they don't need eletrical power to run. The gas flowing from the nozzle though a venturi asperates that air and a choke plate on the air intake port regulates the air flow. This disadvantages are that they are harder to build as they need some drilling and tapping and the correctly constructed reducing tee to form the venturi. Best to buy the part from Ellis or Zoeller. They are also less effecient and are harder to get up to welding temperature. They can also be adversly effected by high altitude (read places like Denver, CO).

Blown burners are very simple to build in that they require no, or not much, drilling and tapping. Actually I'll go with no drilling and tapping because anywhere you think that you might need to do that you could probably drill the hole out a little larger and glue the pieces together with J B Weld. You might have to cut some outside threads, but if you measure out the pieces that you need, you could have the person down at the tool-in-a-box store cut the pipe to length for you and cut the treads too. They are also more effecient than venturi forges and obtain higher heat. Some may say that they are more easily regulated and work better at altitude. The down side is that they need electrical power to work.

Doug Lester


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Old 08-03-2008, 01:30 PM
Mike Krall Mike Krall is offline
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http://www.cashenblades.com/Info/Gas%20forges.html
http://www.dfoggknives.com/forge.htm
http://forgegallery.elliscustomknifeworks.com/
http://www.zoellerforge.com/

Different ways in the different links. Depending on what size of knife you are looking to forge, a "brick" or "two-brick" forge may work... search for those terms here and other places. There is a good thread on "two-brick" at British Blades. Wayne Goddard books have brick forge info as does Blade's "Guide to knifemaking".

A brick forge will not make damascus using propane. A 1/2" side-arm (Zoeller Forge link) will make damascus in 60 cu.in. (small forge). A 3/4" side-arm will make damascus in 350 cu.in. (one burner).

A brick forge is easy and cheap to build but are limited to about 5-6 inch blades. If the blade is small enough, they are GREAT for HT-ing because the temp. is so easily controlled through a wide range of temp... not a thing that can be said about many other gas forges.

Mike
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Old 08-03-2008, 05:29 PM
Doug Lester Doug Lester is offline
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Thanks for the forge design links, Mike. I copied them both to my HD.

Doug Lester


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Old 08-04-2008, 08:12 AM
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Ed Caffrey Ed Caffrey is offline
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Any of the links posted are good information. I thoroughly believe that building your own forge is the way to go. Building your own forge will give you more insight into how a forge works, which in turn, will help you understand the forging process better.

Building your own forge also gives the the capability to "customize" a forge to specifically fit the way you forge, and better fit the knives you make.

The biggest key with a propane forge is to remember the KISS principle! Simple designs generally work better, and if something does go wrong, its much easier to figure it out, and repair it, if needed.


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Old 08-04-2008, 01:05 PM
brucegodlesky brucegodlesky is offline
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The last 3 burners I built required no cutting. and only 3 holes needed drilled and one hole tapped. Like Ed said, keep it simple!!


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Old 08-05-2008, 05:52 AM
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Crex Crex is offline
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Wes (Gene)
Lot of good info available - obvious - just try not to get overwhelmed. As was said repeatedly, keep it simple.
I realize Summerville is a good ride from North GA, but opportunity to look at, try out, and talk to maker/users of several different homemade forges is your's for the drive.

1st opp- Georgia Custom Knifemakers' Guild meeting in Alto, GA - August 16th at the shop of Scott Davidson/Solidrock Knives. Part of our planned program is "Forge Talk" and we will be discussing Testing, Tuning, and Troubleshooting Gas/Propane Forges. We also have one each year (Feb) in Statesboro (much closer) that includes a Friday Mini-hammer-in at the Twinblades Shop. All our meetings are open to the public.

2nd opp - Fall Trackrock Hammer-in - Blairsville, GA/Trackrock Campgrounds, all kinds of forges and bladesmithing setups in operation and you can get a little hands-on with several very gifted smiths from the SE area (and beyond). The weekend of Sept. 26, 27,&28.

Information on both of these can be found below in the Georgia Guild Forum and on www.georgiaknifemakersguild.com
Please feel welcome to attend either or both. Look me up if you do and I'll get you introduced around to a bunch of fine folks.

I worked out of Walterboro as a timber procurement agent back in the early 70's, passing through Summerville several times a week. Beautiful country if you hunt or fish but equator miserable this time of the year! Good folks down there.

(Sorry Ed, didn't mean to hijack, just wanted to give Gene a headsup.)


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