Home made forge question

A lot of reenactment level work is about learning appropriate historical crafts and skills. This board is for all general skills that don't have their own forum.

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Iodo
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Re: Home made forge question

Post by Iodo »

Kortoso wrote:One thing that slows a lot of would-be smiths, is the assumption that the anvil needs to be a huge block of iron or steel.
The Vikings often made do with something little more than a iron spike driven into a heavy stump.
No need to worry :P my anvill (for now) is just a heavy piece of scrap steel on a few foundation blocks, I'll post pics later
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Iodo
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Re: Home made forge question

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Yesterday I tested the forge, finally! The full setup looks like this:

Image

It's fueled with hardwood charcoal and I'm pleased to report that my strange layout of pipework didn't cause any problems, intact it seemed to work perfectly.
As promised heres some photos of the anvil:

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The anvil has a second plate that fits over the top to protect my flat serface from cuting and punching. It also has a work holding chain which allows me to do activities that would normally need three hands. The only thing that didn't work to well was the stand. The top block ended up cracking with repeated impact so I need to rethink that (i'll possibly mount the anvill on a piece of hard wood first)

Here's some pictures of it working:

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It didn't quite get as hot as I would have liked, I think the next thing I'll be trying is an electric blower and using ether coal or coke. And I've got to learnhow to use it, so far I haven't really made anything due to not really knowing what I'm doing.
Gimli: It's true you don't see many Dwarf-women. And in fact, they are so alike in voice and appearance, that they are often mistaken for Dwarf-men.
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Greg
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Re: Home made forge question

Post by Greg »

Try talking to a local tree service, and see if you can get your hands on a log. Anything recently cut from a live tree would do the trick. Ask for something that’s as tall as from the ground to your knuckles in a closed fist at your side (minus the height of your anvil). It’ll be a much more comfortable working position, and you can always nail that chain to the stump.

Looks pretty cool, though! Looking forward to seeing this skill progress.
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Iodo
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Re: Home made forge question

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Greg wrote:Try talking to a local tree service, and see if you can get your hands on a log. Anything recently cut from a live tree would do the trick. Ask for something that’s as tall as from the ground to your knuckles in a closed fist at your side (minus the height of your anvil). It’ll be a much more comfortable working position, and you can always nail that chain to the stump.

Looks pretty cool, though! Looking forward to seeing this skill progress.
That sounds like a great idea, I think I'll do that, thanks Greg :P
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Re: Home made forge question

Post by Eric C »

Okay, I've been absent for a while... again... Anyway, how is this progressing for you? The forge looks great! It would work well as is with coal or coke. If you want to continue to use lump charcoal, then you may want to consider building up some walls around the firepot using firebricks or clay. This will allow you to heap on more charcoal, it will concentrate the heat and it will shield it from outside wind. You want your air coming from your blower and into where you want it.

I do hope this is progressing for you!
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Iodo
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Re: Home made forge question

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Eric C wrote:Okay, I've been absent for a while... again... Anyway, how is this progressing for you? The forge looks great! It would work well as is with coal or coke. If you want to continue to use lump charcoal, then you may want to consider building up some walls around the firepot using firebricks or clay. This will allow you to heap on more charcoal, it will concentrate the heat and it will shield it from outside wind. You want your air coming from your blower and into where you want it.

I do hope this is progressing for you!
Well, I have plans to improve the setup, I've found a nice powerful electric blower and did plan to use it with coke instead of charcoal, I have got a ring of metal I can put on the table around the firepot to shield it from wind if the conditions make it necessary. Problem is I haven't had any time, that was last years college project and now I'm mad busy with this years, which is HNC and much harder

This is the only thing I've had time to make with it so far:
https://www.deviantart.com/maygoldworth ... -764036083
And it's not very impressive, at the moment the forge is buried in the garage and it would take me about half a day to get it out
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Re: Home made forge question

Post by Eric C »

Not a bad start. The leather work is really nice too. My leather work could use some attention.
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Re: Home made forge question

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Eric C wrote:Not a bad start. The leather work is really nice too. My leather work could use some attention.
Thanks :P
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Iodo
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Re: Home made forge question

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Sadly the forge in this thread is now so buried in the garage that it would take weeks of sorting out and tidying up to get it out, so ironically when I decided I needed to forge something it was quicker to build another forge, and although this isn't very good compared to the first, it did the job :P

So here are some photo's:

Image

Image

A (as promised) video of making the forge:

[youtube]xjQbkI7iX3M[/youtube]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjQbkI7iX3M

and a photo of making my gift for theowl:

Image
Gimli: It's true you don't see many Dwarf-women. And in fact, they are so alike in voice and appearance, that they are often mistaken for Dwarf-men.
Aragorn: It's the beards.
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Re: Home made forge question

Post by theowl »

Awesome!
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Re: Home made forge question

Post by Taylor Steiner »

That was cool.
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Manveruon
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Re: Home made forge question

Post by Manveruon »

That’s awesome! The sign on the bolt organizer is particularly inspired :lol:
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Iodo
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Re: Home made forge question

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Thank you :mrgreen:
Manveruon wrote:The sign on the bolt organizer is particularly inspired :lol:
yep, and necessary when you have a brother who thinks it's funny to mix them up :)
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Re: Home made forge question

Post by Cimrandir »

That looks like a lot of fun! One of these days when I have the space for it, I'd like to get more into forging and blacksmithing.
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Iodo
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Re: Home made forge question

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Cimrandir wrote:That looks like a lot of fun! One of these days when I have the space for it, I'd like to get more into forging and blacksmithing.
yep, me to :lol: If I had space to have a forge permanently set up I think I'd be using it all the time
Gimli: It's true you don't see many Dwarf-women. And in fact, they are so alike in voice and appearance, that they are often mistaken for Dwarf-men.
Aragorn: It's the beards.
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