Darren Tee

Just following up. Temps today were above 30 so I decided to fire up the forge for the first time and just heat my blade and normalize it. I burned the tip grinding. Anyway, here are some videos: Forge Fire Up Blade Heated On the second video you can hear the burner making popping sound. I tried opening and closing the choke, and increasing and reducing the pressure but couldn't get it to run consistently for any period of time. Making progress..

This is my first blade. I am having an issue and want to find out if I am doing something wrong, or if my setup is the issue. Through the university of Google, I have seen on multiple videos that when you start beveling with a jig the bevel line is straight and crisp. Mine, as you can see in the picture below is wavy. I am being as consistent as I can and the travel of the jig appears to be smooth. Its a home made jig on a Harbor Freight 30 x 1 belt grinder. What causes this? Is it the platen is not rigid enough and deflects? Could it be my jig? Co

So, we have made progress. Needed to order more Kaowool for the gap so haven't fire the forge yet. I thought I would share some things I have made to help myself with the knife making that may be beneficial to others. Note that I am working on a tight budget. For a belt grinder I bough the Harbor Freight unit for $36 with coupon. I made a larger table with some steel I had in the garage. I welded two studs on the bottom of the plate and drilled holes in the original platen/table and bolted it into place. For a bevel jig I used a piece of angle iron I ha

Thanks Alan, will update on the progress.

So the burner I selected came in. Two questions about this: How far from behind the front of the brick should the tip of the burner be? See pic below, its about 1/4" There is a ring around the burner tip where it goes into the forge, about 1/16 to 1/8". Are you supposed to seal this or is it OK to have that gap? We have cut our first blanks but not yet done the bevel. Once that is done we are going to use the forge so time is soon. Thanks,

My though was that if the flame comes from the top it is directly impacting the work (creating a hot spot), while if it comes in from the side, and the work is on the bottom of the forge it wont be directly impacted by the flame. But, admittedly, I know nothing about doing this so I will learn and the burner location may change.

I used thermal insulating fire brick rated up to 2600 degrees. Sorry if I wasn't clear - its not Home Depot fire brick.

I used 1 1/4" fire brick wrapped in 1/2" kayowool. The position of any burner will create a hot spot - no? Should you close the small gap around the hole where the burner goes into the forge? This is currently planned just for heat treating. If the bug bites hard we may try some welding but not just yet. Baby steps.

Much thanks. Will try to figure this out. Ill keep you updated.

Do you have the specs for a 1/2" T burner? I can not find them online/ Thanks,

Hi All, This is my first post. I am sure that as my son and I progress with this hobby there will be more posts. After reading lots on simple forges to heat treat blades we successfully built our first forge. Pictures below. We used a propane torch but I don't think that it is "big" enough. The heating chamber of this forge is very small - 2 1/2" x 9" x 4 1/4". I think that the Frosty T design would be too big. My question is there a smaller burner design out there, or is the Frosty T design OK for such a small forge? Many thanks,