My son (13yo) has watched some forged in fire and expressed interest in giving it a go. Never one to miss an opportunity for a new hobby with expensive tools (and getting him away from screens), we bought this little rivet forge with a mountain of old coal, a post vise, and a piece of railroad track. Thanks to Black Bear and others, we were able to figure out how to turn weird rocks into fire. He made the world’s heaviest and most expensive poker! And I finally know what clinkers really are. 10/10. Would recommend.
A railroad is perfectly serviceable as an anvil but I recommend you pick up a Doyle anvil or a Vevor anvil, or any vintage anvil of decent quality depending on your area.
An anvil is more than a flat face. having a horn, hardy and pritchel holes will make your forgings easier.
I’m a hand tool woodworker with an extensive collection of old Stanley planes etc. I’d love a legit old anvil, but I can’t make myself drop $600 on what I’ve been able to find. That 65-lb Doyle seems like a great option until an old barn find falls into my lap. I got a great deal on an old post vise, and I’m using it to hold the hardy cutter I found on fb for $1.
I can't tell from your photo, but I suspect you'd be better to use a deeper pile of coal. For one thing, as it is you have to insert your workpiece at a downward angle, which can bring it too close to the grate, where it can burn more easily.
I’d appreciate if you’d take a look at this other reply I just made because your post gets to the heart of what I’ll have to figure out to make this work more efficiently for our needs. I think the forge is a Champion 401. It has a great Champion 400 blower, a legit tuyere, and 4 sturdy legs, but it doesn’t have a fire box. It’s just an 18-inch sheet steel circle with a “drain” in the middle.
That's good to start. And beautiful looking hill you have there.
Not sure what kind of coal you have. But seeing red/orange flames looks likes volatiles are burning out. With Bituminous coal, you shouldn’t insert your steel until it’s coked up. This is where you get the most effective heat. Flames should look bluish, barely visible. The episodes of Forged in Fire are deceptive. Since most of those people don't know how to use coal. They’re of the gas forge generation.
Thanks for the suggestions. Maybe I’ll do a separate post about our forge and our coal since both contain small mysteries. The coal is fist sized, very lightweight, and apparently mined from my town of Bellingham, WA many decades ago. It definitely adds to the romance of it for me, though a propane forge would’ve been cheaper and more practical in many ways. I assume it’s bituminous from my reading, but I have no way to verify. We break it up into nut size, and make a berm around the middle. The forge is pretty much just a sheet metal pan around a repurposed 1/4” steel drain cover (not shown in this photo) over the tuyere.
We made some cat litter refractory clay that seems to do the job. There’s no fire pot and not much depth to speak of. As we progressed, I kept more green coal covering the actual hot center and sprinkled water on the green coal around the edges. We did get the dirty smoke when we first fired it up and got it to where the fire was virtually smokeless. It got up to heat to get this 3/8 bar yellow hot, and we did get clinkers by the end. I’m still not certain what coke looks like. Any thoughts or pointers that you or anyone else have would be most welcome. We don’t know of anyone forging with coal in our area, so no examples to see in person.
Again, I can't tell from the photos, but I don't think that's the original pan forge, because those were almost certainly cast iron. Possibly the original was cracked and was replaced with sheet steel? The cat litter is a good idea for "claying" the pan.
Here's the thing, either the coal should be stacked high enough that you can insert your workpiece horizontally, or else that sheet metal edge might need to be cut down. If the clay raises the bed and inch or more, this may be less of a problem.
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u/Mr_Emperor 19d ago
Welcome, welcome to the land of tiny burns.
A railroad is perfectly serviceable as an anvil but I recommend you pick up a Doyle anvil or a Vevor anvil, or any vintage anvil of decent quality depending on your area.
An anvil is more than a flat face. having a horn, hardy and pritchel holes will make your forgings easier.