M14 Forum

Earthquake · January 15th, 2012, 10:18 AM

Awhile back I started a thread about making a knife by cutting the blank out on a water jet machine but now I'm thinking about tring to forge one the old fashion way. I started to make a forge awhile back but put it one the back burner for awhile.
I was at the shop where I used to work helping them get cleaned up because they are going out of business, during the clean up I found a point for a jack hammer and got to thinking it would probably be good steel to make a knife out of.
So now I'm working on my forge again and am looking for some tips to finish it, I would like to use a hand blower but for now its has a electric blower fan for a air hockey table that I found on E-bay, I'm thinking I can make it a hand cranked blower when it dies. I need to add a shield on the back and I going to make one to protect the blower. The bottom is made from 3/8" diamond plate steel and the sides are 1/8" plate.
I will probably use lump charcoal because reg coal is a bit hard to find here in Las Vegas, I can order it by the 50lb bag but for now I'm going to use the lump charcoal.
Back to the jack hammer point, I'm going to cut the chisel end off and grind it to fit the hardy hole in my anvil to use as a hot cut off tool but the rest I am going to use to play with in the forge.
Any tips to help me along would be appreciated, thank you.

Casey

jroz5522 · January 15th, 2012, 10:54 AM

I have one coal and one waste oil forge. The waste oil is far better but takes some work and a lot of tweaking. Both run on electric fans. Crude Billows are easy to make but require even more fine tuning. Also i would recommend starting with something smaller than a jack hammer point. I use railroad ties a lot but even those take a while to heat up. A 3/4 inch bolt forges easily. Your going to eat up a lot of coal in the beginning so make sure you have a lot. also I use a base made out of fire bricks for both of mine. I would imagine the steel is going to suck a lot of heat out so if you can insulate it some how you will save a lot of coal.

Earthquake · January 15th, 2012, 11:32 AM

jroz5022
I have thought about pouring a 1" thick layer of refractory cement in the bottom except where the tuyere is. [grate] I was going to drop a old tupperware bowl around it and pour around it.

Casey

Sustinemus · January 15th, 2012, 11:36 AM

Quote:

if you can insulate it some how you will save a lot of coal

Yes! I highly recommend lining the bottom and sides of that metal pan with firebrick. I have found firebrick about 1-1/2" thick around here. You might find some a bit thinner. That's the easiest way to do it.

You can also make your own lining with ganister, which is a mixture of crushed firebrick and fireclay. Use old steel baling wire or steel mesh or clothes hangers as rebar. You will want to "temper" it with a wood fire in the pan and letting it cool before taking it up to full temp.

Another item: Coal may not always be available in your area. I use charcoal briquets to melt aluminum and brass for my sand castings and it does the job fast with forced air (and smells better than coal). Kingsford brand is best. Cheaper brands have a lot of sand in their mixtures.

A large-ish blower can have it's output attenuated with a simple sheet metal door or gate on the inlet. This allows getting your heat set the way you want it.

Metal is fun.

SOCOM42 · January 15th, 2012, 01:27 PM

I used an old cast iron sink, lined it with firebrick. Used an old vac cleaner for air. Use to burn coke now only coal.

huntinghawk · January 15th, 2012, 02:34 PM

Brake drum works well for the fire box. Check with a local auto mechanic for a FREE one.

Center piece you want to be able to move that up & down by about 1" as a clinker breaker.

If you use a 12VDC fan with an on/off switch on the ground to a rechargeable 12VDC battery your forge is now semi portable.

HH

Earthquake · January 15th, 2012, 03:46 PM

HH
I was going to use a brake drum from a Semi, but I used it for a stand for my Pexto anvil stake, Now I need another one for a stand for my 100 lb anvil, I'm going to fill it with concrete to help steady it.

Casey

huntinghawk · January 15th, 2012, 04:47 PM

I think you will find a semi brake drum larger & heavier then what you want. JMO from my experience with them. But after years of dealing with them I went with a LP gas forge.

HH

jroz5522 · January 15th, 2012, 05:54 PM

You can always make your own charcoal too. Its easy to do. Also If you don't have experience with the color/temp relationship you should try to find a chart online and watch a few videos looking for color. Its easy to just say you want it bright orange but it takes a little bit of practice to notice the optimal color. It's important to take it out and put it back at the right color. At first you will likely be taking it out too early. You want it very bright.

Tinman536 · January 16th, 2012, 02:51 AM

once you have your skills where you like them try some O1 tool steel it is oil hardening and holds a very fine edge. small pieces can usually be found on ebay under metal&alloy section

huntinghawk · January 16th, 2012, 07:25 AM

Tempering metal is its own skill set.

HH

Packing a 45 · February 10th, 2012, 12:43 AM

You will need a cast iron grate in the bottom as it gets so hot it will burn up even the heavyest iron in short order,also if you go with 12v pull the speed control out of an auto heater fan control or AC unit, diffrent speeds for diffrent applications. I also used the the tank and pump from the window washing system for when the coals got too hot, I liked it better than a tin can with holes punched in the bottom Have you tried asking at the feed stores about coal, horse shooers use it alonge with propane. You need the coal to replace or add carbon back into the steel
Good luck
Packing

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mercman · February 10th, 2012, 12:56 PM

Yeah, I've been thinking about doing this for some time. I recently attended a blacksmiting seminar in Seattle and that really got my interest back up there. Unfortunately I've been tied up with bead blaster and some parkerizing and haven't had the time to play with forging. I do have several steel blanks and a few in titanium to work with when I get the chance.........................

woodzie65 · February 10th, 2012, 03:33 PM

A easy forge you can make and works very well for smaller blades 5-6inches is taking two fire bricks and wire them together and take a 2inch hole bit and drill it out not all the way threw leave about a inch, unwire them and take one of the bricks and use a new brick and wire the two so it looks like a half circle then put a 3/4 inch hole on the side about the middle of the brick and then use a acetylene torch (B-Tank) or you can buy the small yellow cans at home depot and that will get your steel plenty hot ,I use small steels bearing 1095 or 52100 bearing you can get them for a scrap yard or i get them from a place in my state call Axman surplus 5.99 a pound they are very cheap but very good steel and you can temper them in oil . that is all i use to make my knife blades i have pics but i dont know how to post them yet i will try