Thread: DIY Gas powered Forge

Originally Posted by Vern

Andy, i'll get my mate to send me some pics of his forge, reckons it gets real hot. He likes making his knives out of things like files, coil springs etc...
I'll get a pic of some of his work as well.
He made a nice little knife the other day, someone offered him $400 for it. Makes me appreciate the one he made for me so much more now knowing what it could be worth.

Lindsay has made several knives for his mates as 18th birthday presents,they looked a million bucks.
He has tried making a sword but hasnt got the heat to do the whole blade yet.
Andrew

Originally Posted by Phil HH

It's pretty easy to make your own burner. I forget where I got my information from, but it was on the net somewhere. I used a MIG wire nozzle as a metering jet, and dispensed with the inconvenience of a regulator altogether (probably dangerous). The oven is a horizontal section of oxy bottle lined with fire brick and 'refractory', a sort of soft fireproof plaster of paris. The burner fires down through a hole at the 2 o'clock position. This oven is handy for small jobs when it would be inconvenient to fire up the coke-fuelled hearth, as the heat-up time is much shorter. (I try to use the term 'forge' to describe the whole work area, like the term 'workshop' - this terminology comes from an old blacksmith).


Oh, by the way, if you build one of these watch out for the wafts of flame that come out the front.

The "whole work area" of a blacksmith is the smithy. The forge is the bed of coke with a bellows or blower wherein the metal is heated. A friend did his apprenticeship as a blacksmith at Evans Deakin South Brisbane the same time I was apprenticed as a Fitter-machinist. He tells me he grew to hate jackhammer and chipping hammer points as the apprentices had the job of re-pointing them by the 44 gallon drum full. I met him as young tradesmen doing casual work on the ED's ship repair gang. He left the trade due to lack of work and much later undertook extra studies to become a farrier. He made enough from this to buy a motel. He points out that a farrier is not a blacksmith unless apprenticed as one but many blacksmiths acted as farriers particularly in country towns. A proper farrier studies horses legs and feet to be able to create shoes that will correct deficiencies.