# WIP...sorta



## Noah (Jan 5, 2017)

Well, here's my first step along the way on my new blade smithing journey. 

Humble beginnings, but they were a lot of fun to make and I learned a ton. 

Fun stuff...addictive.


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## Nemo (Jan 5, 2017)

Cool. Well done.


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## merlijny2k (Jan 6, 2017)

Nice! Photo of your foging setup?


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## Noah (Jan 6, 2017)

merlijny2k said:


> Nice! Photo of your foging setup?



Sure thing:

Little forge that I made out of fire bricks with some grooves cut out of them for torches and exhaust. Does pretty well for starters but I can't seem to get anything up past about bright orange. Will need hotter eventually.

View attachment 34142


Ancient piece of railroad track that I ground down to relatively flat and hardened with about an hour of heating with MAP gas in a slightly broken down version of my little forge and quenched in the tank there on the floor.

View attachment 34141


P.S. Not sure why the images changed to links. They were images when I started editing the message, but now you have to click them to see it. Go figure...


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## jessf (Jan 6, 2017)

Images dont show up when i check the link. Cool tongs. Ive been debating making some. I want some grooved jaws to hold stock more effectively. I may just buy the closest looking one then modify them.


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## Noah (Jan 6, 2017)

jessf said:


> Images dont show up when i check the link. Cool tongs. Ive been debating making some. I want some grooved jaws to hold stock more effectively. I may just buy the closest looking one then modify them.



Yeah, I know that I'm going to be making several other pairs for various uses. These were mainly to get my feet wet and hopefully be able to hold some short 3/16 1095 I bought to make my first blade, but I've already been thinking of designs that would be better suited for certain types of stock.

I'll re-attempt the pictures here. Fingers crossed...


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## Noah (Jan 6, 2017)

Seems it only likes to show images if I limit them to one per post?


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## jessf (Jan 6, 2017)

Awesome forge. The bricks i use are too fragile and crack really easily. Your bricks look much better. You should get a hotter flame with map gas.


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## milkbaby (Jan 6, 2017)

Cool stuff, nice tongs!

I've read that those firebricks don't hold the heat as well as the soft insulating firebrick that jessf is probably talking about. You may want to coat the inside with a good refractory or just satanite to boost up the temps.


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## merlijny2k (Jan 6, 2017)

Back when I was a mechanical engineering student I designed one of these for an assignment. Probably crap but reminds me of good times. I think the better insulation is primarily of importance for tempering for hours to keep fuel consumption down. To get things hot quick just get the better flame and you are fine.


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## Noah (Jan 6, 2017)

Yeah I'd been wandering if it might be worth while to coat the inside, or perhaps even the whole thing with some sort of refractory mud or some such. Sounds like it may be worth a shot.

@merlijny2k by "get a better flame" I presume you're meaning a larger burner? I do have the ability with my current setup to add a third torch in another hole. Just hadn't gotten around to trying it yet. I was thinking that even though my bricks get a lovely orange hot eventually (on the very inside that is, the outside stays relatively cool) I figured perhaps they weren't holding the calories adequately to allow the heat to build up to steel's yellow or white hot levels. (Not that I really want white hot for anything, but yellow would be lovely.)

Any input is certainly appreciated. I'd really like to be able to toy a little with forge welding. Eventually I'm planning on building a ribbon burner forge with a 20lb tank, some kaowool, and a proper refractory insulator, but for now anything I can get out of this little setup is a plus.

BTW, I went back to pure propane instead of MAP. I'd only been using that during the anvil hardening because one of my torch heads came with a MAP tank.


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## merlijny2k (Jan 7, 2017)

It's an energy in vs energy out thing. Energy in is the combustion energy of the gas. Energy out is losses due to thermal buildup in the stones, knife, losses through the walls and exhaust gasses, other airflows. Biggest culprit usually is the exhaust gas. Limit case is when the forge is as hot as your flame. Then the exhaust gasses bring out all combustion energy. Fuel-air mixture is very important for flame temp. Any additional airflow just carries away heat, so check the back for any openings that might allow such airflows. Check the temp of your flame. You can never get your knife-in-forge hotter than a needle held in the flame so check that first. Bigger or more burners will get you a more even temp. Like if the tip is near the flame and goes white but the rest stays orange, you can get more or bigger flames, if you don't get desired temp at all get hotter burning gas or fix the gas-air mix. Unfortunately i have only conceptual and computational experience with heatflow problems but zero practical. I went to school in Suriname and there were never funds for stuff and then i became structural engineer.


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## Noah (Jan 7, 2017)

Thank you @merlijny2k. The needle idea is a great one. That'll let me know what I'm really dealing with.


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## Noah (Jan 7, 2017)

Yeah, looks like after needle test my flame is only hot enough to get to bright orange.


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## ecchef (Jan 7, 2017)

High marks for making you own tongs Noah. Really nice job.
I used to have some old books relating to railroad operations, and it seems as though every tool they needed was made by in-house smiths.
I was always very impressed by that.


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## Noah (Jan 7, 2017)

ecchef said:


> High marks for making you own tongs Noah. Really nice job.
> I used to have some old books relating to railroad operations, and it seems as though every tool they needed was made by in-house smiths.
> I was always very impressed by that.



Thanks.  A big part of the fun in it for me is making the tools. After all, this all started with me wanting to make some kitchen tools. Planning to make my own 2x72 belt grinder, ribbon burner forge, hydraulic press, and power hammer along with various little tools, hammers, etc.

In fact, I'm currently working on making a Japanese-style bladesmith's hammer. I needed a drift to set the eye on the hammer head, didn't have large enough stock in house for it, and we're snowed in. So today my room mate acted as striker for me and we created a drift by upsetting a too-small bar until it wasn't too small. Lot of work, but was fun.


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