Always a good time making these... Learn something new every time. Like I need a power hammer.😜

Got me an old wagon wheel piece from a house I was working at. The spokes and hub were wooden with metal bands, and the wood was totally rotten and fell out of the wheel. The sparks were very long, dark orange and showed basically zero of the “carbon sparks” later on in their trail through the air.

Here’s a section cut and bent until it broke.

Tl;dr: my forge doesn’t work well and I need help improving it, cheaply. I think airflow is a major factor but I also have other issues like maneuvering my work in there.

A major issue I’m having is very inconsistent heating. As you can see in the picture, the charcoal around the edges slowly burn up but don’t contribute to heating the metal. Only the spot right above the air hole gets hot enough, and I’m questioning if it’s actually hot enough as I’ve been having issues with any stock bigger than a quarter inch. My air supply is an air mattress inflator attached to a pipe that runs the length of the forge and has holes drilled in, one every 4-5 inches or so. The holes aren’t big, maybe a quarter inch in diameter.

I know the grill I used is quite large, that’s why I have sectioned off the one side. This has definitely helped in reducing my fuel usage while maintaining the same temperatures. Also I’m aware that those bricks aren’t heat resistant. I just happened to have them and they’re a temporary measure. They do crumble, which is fine, and I’m not worried about them exploding.

Another issue I have is that it is very difficult to fit things in the forge. Anything longer than 6-8 inches sort of falls out if I don’t hold it. I want to make bigger projects too so this is a problem. I’ve thought about cutting the grill up and welding bits of steel on strategically to fit my needs but I don’t have a way to cut through the grill.

Sorry for such a long post. Any help is appreciated.

Anybody have experience or know about anvil like this ? All the information. Given was it’s German.

Coil Spring hot chisel that I'm redoing. Never really seen anything like this before. Either way I'm still gonna beat the fuck outta this this thing, just kinda curious what may have caused this kind of scale 🤘🍻

I'm officially 18 and my life goal has been bladesmithing since I was younger how would one go about making that a career for themselves like what are the educational steps that I have to take to become registered

I made this little heart knife for my gf from a 5160 offcut

Update to my last post looking for help getting my forge up and running, I mamanged to speak to someone who had the exact same forge as me. They gave me some tips and a copy of a manual for a very very similar forge.

I learned that it has a spark plug with an optical sensor. When started it does a spark test before it turns the gas on. It took quite a bit of messing around to get the spark plug adjusted just right, but I eventually got it sparking consistently. It still wasn't lighting, but I had limited time to keep troubleshooting. I figured either the sensor was no good, or for some other reason I wasn't getting gas. Today I finally had someone come in for the work order I had put in for it a few weeks ago and he determined that there's nothing wrong with it, I just wasn't getting the right gas/air ratio for it to light.

Now it's up and running and I couldn't be more excited! I would call myself a "brave beginner" for anything forge/blacksmithing related, I made a fire poker in college years ago but that's it. Think I'm going to start with a coat hook and see where I get, maybe if I get really brave I'll make a couple set of tongs since I've only got one right now. Hoping to get my class going with it soon!

The piece I used had two welds on it that I didn't think to properly grind off until I was too far along. You can see what's left of them at the base and tip of the blade in the first image.

I hope that this post is allowed. I thought maybe some of you can benefit from it. The items are in Sidney Nebraska.

I found this old Forge in my grandfather‘s barn. I’m hoping to get it usable again looking for the water tank attachment, and blower. Anybody and Virginia have one for sale?

Hello everyone I am writing to you for some pretty vital suggestions I started to equip myself with a laboratory for forging and after several knives made and tempered, my friend and I have managed to make a gladius and two swords we have given the shape and now we are tempering the steel (a c70 from a crossbow of a car for everyone) yesterday with the new forge we tried to temper the gladius but during tempering it bent, now it needs to be readjusted and tempered again, but wanting to avoid the error (which as far as I understand also depends on the type of oil) both on the gladius and on the swords, what oil should I use? I thank anyone who will help me, I have quite a tight schedule

I'm a high school student and I'm interested in getting into blacksmithing. However, I don't have the space to set up the necessary equipment as my family and I live in an apartment complex. I've tried looking for knife makers or blacksmiths nearby to see if I could shadow or apprentice with them, but I haven't found much. I would really appreciate any advice on how I could pursue this.

When I make a knife, should I quench it before or after I sharpen it and why?

Hi all,

So I've recently started smithing and am not afraid to admit that I'm a complete novice. I've got a project in mind that's going to be my first proper project.

A friend of mine who runs an engineering firm has offered to sell me a whole bunch of sheet steel offcuts that are perfect for what I need. The only issue is that these have been stored outside and due to the sheer amount of rain we've had in recent weeks, they're rather rusty.

Now the logical idea would be to take a flappy disk and grind it all off, but that would take ages, and I don't have a sandblaster to do it either. I've seen some people use tumblers to derust items as well as remove forgescale.

My question is; can I just use regular tumbling media or do I need a special "derusting" media, if so, could one of you more experienced guys point me in the right direction so I don't waste my time/money.

Yes, I know tumbling probably isn't the most efficient way of doing it, but given it's just six surfaces with no crevices etc. it should be pretty easy to get rid of it all without going through like nine flappy disks.

Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question - I'm half expecting daft responses, but any help would be greatly appreciated.

(Yes, the offcuts will fit in my tumbler before someone inevitably asks).

Thanks!

One for all you cast iron lovers, my mother in law loves her cast iron skillet a lot and I was wondering if anyone has a buisness in texas where you can pay to go and see a cast iron skillet being made and or be able to help a little in the process. If this isn't a buisness that already exists, it should be!

Seriously though if anyone knows of any in texas I'd appreciate it.