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This is not a question but I thought this might be the right place to show how I setup my forge. You are free to comment! So there you go: - I used James Spurgeon's design for the ventury burner. It was quite easy as every component self aligned the burner tip right in the middle of the pipe. It has been harder however to find black iron pipes and fittings here in Canada. Got them from Acklands. Do not use galvanized steel. It will reek toxic fumes. - The horizontal propane tank pattern seamt to be the most versatile so I went for it. DO PURGE THE TANK PROPERLY BY REMOVING THE VALVE AND FILLING IT WITH WATER BEFORE YOU DO A SINGLE SPARK. The day after it will still stink but it's only the sulfur or whatever they put in propane that's impregnated in the metal, so no danger. I also had the idea of cutting a door, weld a hinge and bolt a clip that I took from a fire extinguisher wall holder. It allows me to put large stock and replace the brick easily. It works very well! I can put half a coil spring in for straightening. After a few uses I realized that I cut the front window a bit too big and the rear window should be held shut when not needed to limit heat loss. I used one layer of 2" 6lbs kaowool(I know 8lbs is better but only 6lbs was available). Then a coat of about a quarter inch of castable refractory cement. I have to say that part was a pain in the ass... Those who did it will know. For those who choose not to coat with cement, you should at least use a wool hardener to increase durability and save your lungs from airborne ceramic. I angled the burner just enough to have a nice swirl and less hot spots.

Hello, I have just starting getting into blade smithing and have really just been watching videos and researching, I am looking for a mentor that would be willing to teach me, and or a makers hub where I can put tools I buy and work in. I have no idea if it would cost to learn or what but I am in central Florida and travel for work all over the country during the week, I really want to get into this trade because I am a professional welder and love working with metal, any advice, people, or schools in my area that would be willing to teach me or mentor me on the weekends? Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone, I'm just starting out smithing. While I am not yet a bladesmith, I am about to attempt a knife for chopping charcoal. Crazy, huh? I've made my own small charcoal forge and just finished my first set of tongs. Right now I am buying lump charcoal (cowboy brand) and using a hatchet to size it. I have two newbie questions: Are there many bladesmiths here who predominantly use charcoal to forge? Is there a traditional (any tradition) pattern for a knife that is used to chop charcoal? Taylor, near Jeddo TX

Hi everyone! After having a fascination with knives, swords and blades for some years, I discovered Alec Steele on YouTube who took my fascination from a low burn, to a roaring flame! The stuff he made has me hooked, but I heard the odd mention of a show called 'Forged in Fire'. Seeing some of the amatuer smiths that went on there and how basic and simple their setups were, convinced me that it's not 'too' difficult to get started. This lead to me finally getting my rear in gear and start getting the bits I need to start. After a year of a slow start, I finally have a working setup!! I have finally joined you lot! This is my first backyard setup! Basic, but proud of it! Had some coil spring from a van ready to get started on, got it heated and started hammering away at it. I had to make a spring for my post vice and a wedge for the bracket that holds it to the stump And finally the last I shall touch of my first piece Not gonna attempt to fit a handle as I feel that would be a RIGHT pain to try to attempt a hidden tang handle on what started as a "lets just heat and beat on this and see just how bad my aim is" practice piece So all in all, I'm pretty happy with myself for my first setup and VERY FIRST FORGING SESSION!! Compulsory fail pic: don't yet have soft fire bricks to block one end of the forge for heat retention. Turns out cinder blocks melt........these are used in buildings......... concern.

Here's #3 (I'm going to quit counting at 5 ) Hand forged from a 7/8" W1 drill rod. Weights 4.2oz with a 6" blade. Handle is bloodwood and walnut with stainless and white vulcanized fiber spacers. Bolster is aluminum reclaimed from a car suspension tab. I learned a lot again on this one!

The time has come to design #3. I will raise the bar quite a bit on this one. As usual, brutal honesty is welcomed as well as any advice. Thanks for looking! Also, will W1 show a real hamon with canola oil?

Beginner's Place seemed appropriate for this. So I'm in the process of planning out my next forge. I'm not completely new at this game, I'm already made a small charcoal forge (which ended up failing) and a venturi gas forge (which works). All my tool and equipment before were mostly cheap tools or improvised, so now I'm slowly working at buying/making proper bladesmithing gear. The next on the chopping block is my forge. Now my other isn't bad, it's actually a pretty nice little forge, was even able to do some forge welding with it. The problem is that it isn't the most well-put together forges and internal temp isn't quite as high as I would like. I don't have anything put together yet, just some concepts drawn up on Paint. Beware, the photos are pretty high quality. The body I'm making is from a steel tube I got from a buddy. A little overkill but its free. The rest of the dimensions are in the pictures and the burners I'm planning on making forced air this time around. I feel like I've got the main concepts down, but there are some questions I have that I can't seem to find after hours of searching. -1 burner should be enough in this case to maintain forge welding temperatures, correct? I saw somewhere to make it one burner for every 350 cu/in, this one comes up to 340 (3" radius & 12 long chamber)(the image above in incorrect with the volume, that was before I planned on trimming the size of the tube down) -Do I need the flair at the end of the burner for a forced air burner? Is so what size would I need from a 1" pipe or does it not really matter? -for the fuel jet I was planning on using a brass plug with a hole drilled in it. It's a 1" pipe, and I've seen people mention using a #57 drill bit for the hole. Does this sound right? If not what size should work for this size burner? So yeah. If anyone's willing to give me some direction with this, help's always appreciated. Also if anyone sees anything wrong with the design and is willing to point it out, I'm not the kind to disregard bad advice. And before I forget, I intend on using this forge mainly for making small and large knives and to do some forge welding, therefor its important for me to make a forge than can hold forge forge welding temps. EDIT: Yeah, so as it turns out Photobucket charges users a premium for third party hosting. Anyone looking to share their images just use cubeupload instead.

I finally received my Picard 1kg Swedish pattern yesterday. I dressed it this morning. All by hand, it took a lot of elbow grease! Those hammers are very well made for the money.

Good evening gents! It so happens that I finished my second knife. It's my first forged blade and hidden tang. It's also an Xmas gift for my father. I've had a lot of fun doing this one! Here's the specs: 7.5" overal, 3.5" blade, 7/8" wide at ricasso. 0.120" thick at ricasso tapered to almost zero. It's 80CrV2, reclaimed brass, G10 and bloodwood.

Good evening gentlemen! Turns out this year I picked my father for our xmas gift exchange. He hunted and fished all his life and never actually had a quality knife so it would be more than a suitable gift. I thought a bird and trout knife would fit his needs as he mostly hunts grouse. So here's what I came out with. Please feel free to tell if there's anything wrong or not so good in the design.

Hey guys, so I've been forging for several years now and just got set up for forge-welding, I read these forums everyday so I have seen a few posts about what type of steels to use, the problem is I'm not gonna drop a ton of money on steels, I'm mostly a scrap hunter. I want to do a damascus blade, I know normally you go with known metals that will offer a high contrast, I have some leaf spring, some mild steel, a massive industrial saw mill blade, several bandsaw blades and files and some stainless. My hope is that some combo of these metals will create a decently vivid contrast will forge welded. Anybody have a suggestion out of those materials? Sorry for the lengthy question, apparently there is wisdom in wine but only rambling and over-explanation in bourbon. Thanks in advance.

I have one for you guys: How much distal taper do you think I need for proper geometry on this blade? It's 3/16 thick at the ricasso and the blade is 4" long. Draw filing is exhausting and I wouldn't want to have a weird geometry at the end :/ As you can see I tapered the spine. This is fun Thank you!

Hello everyone, This here is my first ever attempt at making a blade. It's forged out of 1095, 17 1/2" in length overall, with a 12" blade. What do you think of the overall blade geometry? My thought is the tip is too pointy, and I need to grind the break down to a steeper angle. Also, is the tang too wide? I think I'm probably going to burn on a simple wooden handle.

Hi everyone, I'm new here and this is my first post. I first got a taste of smithing on my grandfather's farm more than 30 years ago. I recently took some classes at Pratt Fine Art institue here in Seattle, and have been seriously bitten by the bug. I've started setting up a forge in my garage, and look forward to a big project this summer which will be building a press. I got the Batson book and will be making one similar to the "C" press described in the book. Most recently I took a damascus steel class and forged a couple of billets. I've started grinding out a blade from the first billet, and here's what it looks like: I haven't etched it, but the pattern is visible. I'm quite happy with it. Unfortunately this is what the other side looks like: The blade had a slight warp in it, so I heated it up to flatten it, and that hole appeared. I think it may have been some flux that got included, and on the reheat it sort of exploded. The white line is where I plan to cut the blade to salvage it and turn it into a broken-back seax. I'm eagerly awaiting the delivery of my KMG grinder on Friday. -Jeff

Hello everyone, Today I am trying to find a good option for a saltwater diver's/fisher's blade. My friend is quite the avid sea-farer and has complained that his blades often rust out rather quickly. His birthday is coming up in a couple months and I'd love to surprise him with a blade that might hold up a bit better... Not to mention something he can show off to his diving group to possibly bring in some market. Any help or tips is much appreciated! Thank you!

Hey all, utter new guy here. Been dreaming of getting into blacksmithing all my life, but never saw an opertounity till now in my late 30's. Got a huge unexpected cash gift for christmas, and the day before I have been drooling over an anvil on craigslist. So now I am they very proud owner of a 360 pound Peter Wright anvil. She's a BEAST, but shes in pretty good shape with only minor damage $2.77 a pound, so not killer cheap, but within reasonable range from what I have seen. I probably still should have gone for a smaller anvil and had money left over to buy other tools, but it is what it is. I am a CNC machinist as my day job, so have tons of scrap mettal laying around as they don't care if we take home "unuseable" chunks and ends of steel bars. I need some help designing a forge, I came across several guides to making forges, but all of them seem to missing some details. I have some large peices of 1/2" plate steel I bought for scrap price. Was planning on making my fire box out of that stuff, little heavy, but I like over building everything I do, so it's fine. How deep should I make the pit? I got the basic idea from http://imgur.com/a/rbRdd/noscript His appears to be approx 3" deep, i don't know if that's a good deapth or not any suggestions? My pan will be different from his in that I was planning on turned up sides. I have a large peice of 12 guage sheet steel rusting in the barn, probably 4 foot square. I can take that into a friends wookplace and use their sheer and break and make a nice pan out of that in whatever size I decide on. Maybe 3 by 2.5 feet? Not sure, any suggesstions might be helpful. I havn't even begun thinking about the hood for it yet, figured I would get the forge built and worry about the hood later.

Hi all, This is my first Post here but I have been reading page after page here for weeks. I know that their is a ton of posting on much of this, which is why I am mostly looking for some Opinions on what YOU think would be best. Also if anyone lives near me (Ellicott City Maryland) that is okay with offering help and advise when I run into a situation where I need it, let me know. Okay so here goes First up........ Anvil. I can get my hands on some 1045 round stock 4" Dia by 7" or 5" dia x 8.6". 4" is around $50 and the 5" $80. no luck yet with finding a local supplier with a decent size drop, but I am Stil looking. I was also considering the 4140 4"x4" from Old world. 4" 1045 is about 24 Lb the 5" is about 47 Lb and Old world is 25 but its also heat treat and free shipping. which one should i go for? Next for the Damascus.... I am going to be ordering from Aldo at NJSteelBaron.com but Was thinking of doing up a billet of 1095, 1084, and 15N20. Was wondering if anyone has seen anything with this mixture or If you think i should just use either 1084/15N20 or 1095/15N20 mix to keep it simple. I am hoping to make a dagger that has a subtle variation; kinda like someone making a pattern wielded/Damascus out of 1095/1050 mix (Walter Sorrels had a vid he did this in), with the addition of the higher contrast from the 15N20..... Hopefully that came out right and you know what I mean lol. Again Super happy to be here Im working on setting up my own personal setup right now (for my house) and I am getting the forge built hopefully done within a week or so. Thanks in advance

so i had a few rr spikes and have been using these to hone my blade making skills, and i attempted a pineapple twist. Luckily this wasnt really difficult at all but i also did an edge quench got the blade past magnetic held for a sec the dipped the edge held then full dip. The question i have is whats up with these temper/color splotches i have.

I've been experimenting with clay paste/hamon stuff, and long story short I've managed to make up my own paste that actually works (I tested hardness with a Mohs hardness tester). Anyway, I was wondering what solution I should use for etching, and where I can get it. I've got a year or so before I can drive, and not-too-willing parents-to-drive. Plus a very limited wallet. Help?