Welcome, Guest. Please Login
SLINGING.ORG
 
Home Help Search Login


Page Index Toggle Pages: 1
Send Topic Print
Very primitive and very effective forge! (Read 3572 times)
Mauro Fiorentini
Forum Moderation
*****
Offline


Forge your future with
the hammer of your mind!

Posts: 3442
Ancona, Italy.
Gender: male
Very primitive and very effective forge!
Dec 8th, 2012 at 1:24pm
 
Hallo people!
I had nothing to do today and so I made another forge!
This is the fifth forge I built and it's the first (or the second?) non-historical one.
Since my dog's gone, I decided to give up with forging using the historical forge (see http://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1304866605). It gave me great satisfactions as I've used it to graduate at the university, but my beloved Tito is buried nearby and the whole garden is now off-limits for me. I just go there for the dog.
So I needed a new forge, to work indoor.
I went to my messy cellar and I started to look around: here, the old plastic pump I used when I was a child, to inflate my dinghy at the beach!
And look, a small iron manhole! Who knows where I stole it... ehi wait!
I pierced the manhole on one side, looked into my collection of iron pieces and found a pipe that fitted perfectly with the pump's plastic one.
So I hammered a little sheet of iron and created a tiny cone: this will link the iron pipe and the manhole!
I then fixed everything with insulating tape and put some coal in the manhole... I ignited it... hey it works!
But darn, pumping with the foot is sooo boring! And it takes forever to heat the iron...
I ran at home and grad my grandmother's hairdryer, went to the cellar again and put it in place of the pump.
Fixing the hairdryer with the plastic pipe... done!
After a hour, the heat destroyed the plastic pipe close to the hairdryer; I then decided to remove the pipe - no intermediary!
Look, my mom's plastic tiny flower pots! They're the right size! I cut down the bottom of one of them... and put it between the hairdryer and the iron pipe. Fixed with the tape as usual... it worked for some time, but then the heat caused the tape to unstuck!
Cool, no more tape.
Take that piece of thick leather, make ten holes on one side, ten on the opposite one, bend and saw everything... and you have a strong leather cone to replace the flower pot.
Guys, it worked.
I let the hairdryer go for 3 hours continuously and everything went well, no air losses.
Iron bright orange, close to 900°C all the time.
And a wonderful knife I made, will post picture of the forge and the knife later  Smiley
Now you have no excuses not to upgrade to the Iron Age  Cheesy
Greetings,
Mauro.
Back to top
 

Like! Smiley https://www.facebook.com/Arte-Picena-238289793027749/timeline/
Greetings,
Mauro.

Mauro Fiorentini - 339-525
 
IP Logged
 
Atlatlista
Ex Member


Re: Very primitive and very effective forge!
Reply #1 - Dec 8th, 2012 at 2:57pm
 
Almost hot enough to melt copper.  That's what I really want to be doing.  Bronze age is far enough for me, thanks.
Back to top
 
 
IP Logged
 
Mauro Fiorentini
Forum Moderation
*****
Offline


Forge your future with
the hammer of your mind!

Posts: 3442
Ancona, Italy.
Gender: male
Re: Very primitive and very effective forge!
Reply #2 - Dec 8th, 2012 at 4:45pm
 
Yeah I begun metal working helping a friend with his project - we managed to build and improve a replica of a Bronze Age furnace, which we used for 5 years (well, I just helped for the first 2 and then switched to iron) melting axes, daggers, harpoons, spear heads, scallops, jewelry and other things... there're some discussions and pictures of these things in the "Other metal" section of our Primitive Weapons Index here, and apart from that, if you have any question or curiosity feel free to ask!  Smiley

By the way next step is to try to melt bronze in my furnace. I'm looking at the "colour scale" right now and it says I should have reached 1100°C, not 900°. Since I'm not sure of the scale, that is I'm not sure of my ability to judge the colour I've seen in the forge, the only cheap way to test it is to try and melt some bronze.

Anyway if you're interested, here're the pics of my new forge, hopefully you'll manage to build your one too! And I can tell you from now that if your purpose is to melt bronze, a different furnace, e.g. a thick, tall can with a small diameter would be better than my manhole.
And here's the forge:

...

...
(above): the manhole filled with coal, and one end of the metal pipe.

...
(above): where all begins: the small cone I've made with the metal sheet, hammered into the hole I made in the manhole. It's quite strong but it's better not to move it too much.

...
(above): the leather cone I've made instead of the plastic one; it's very resistant to heat. It took me half a hour to make it and it saves me hours of little reparations (and meters of insulant tape).

As you can see this is a really tiny forge, which is the best for making knives and arrowheads, the only things on which I'm going to test my skill, regarding iron  Smiley
Greetings,
Mauro.

Back to top
 

Like! Smiley https://www.facebook.com/Arte-Picena-238289793027749/timeline/
Greetings,
Mauro.

Mauro Fiorentini - 339-525
 
IP Logged
 
Jabames
Interfector Viris Spurii
*****
Offline


:3

Posts: 1868
Alaska
Gender: male
Re: Very primitive and very effective forge!
Reply #3 - Dec 8th, 2012 at 6:30pm
 
One of these days I wanna make a simple hammer forged knife and some firesteels
Back to top
 
 
IP Logged
 
Mauro Fiorentini
Forum Moderation
*****
Offline


Forge your future with
the hammer of your mind!

Posts: 3442
Ancona, Italy.
Gender: male
Re: Very primitive and very effective forge!
Reply #4 - Dec 8th, 2012 at 7:17pm
 
Well, knife making is relatively easy.
I will not bother you with tips on how to turn iron into steel, because I assume you're going to forge a raw piece of steel already.
So all you have to do is to beat gently but firmly, stretching the steel far from you, once on one side, and then on the other.
Repeat until you make a thin edge.
Be sure to mantain a thick back, though, and always be careful that your edge is straight. If it's not, turn the blade on the opposite side and beat it without stretching the steel.
Be careful because hammering will cause your blade to bend. Control this bending by keeping the knife on the anvil, its back on the anvil, and hammer in the point right before the blade begins.
You can choose to make a barbed tang or a flat one.
The flat one is generally stronger and will require less work on the wooden handle; on the other side you will not be able to add a metal plate between your fingers and the blade: it's risky when it comes to stab.
The barbed one allows you to protect your fingers with that plate but the point where the blade begins is the weakest and this may cause the blade to bend.
The amount of time for making each of these tangs is the same; remember that you have to pierce the flat one.
Once the forging is done, quench in olive oil and watch out for flames.
You will see the steel shining under if the quench was perfect.
Greetings,
Mauro.
Back to top
 

Like! Smiley https://www.facebook.com/Arte-Picena-238289793027749/timeline/
Greetings,
Mauro.

Mauro Fiorentini - 339-525
 
IP Logged
 
Teg
Interfector Viris Spurii
*****
Offline



Posts: 1113
Central Europe
Gender: male
Re: Very primitive and very effective forge!
Reply #5 - Dec 9th, 2012 at 1:06pm
 
It's always astonishing to see how few and simple tools are needed to achieve nice results!

Just one thing I have to say knowing your cellar: Keep it well vented (open door and window)! CO poisoning or CO2 suffocation will knock you faster out of your boots than you can say: Mhh... I feel a little bit dizzy...

For your information: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1281520/
Back to top
 
 
IP Logged
 
Mauro Fiorentini
Forum Moderation
*****
Offline


Forge your future with
the hammer of your mind!

Posts: 3442
Ancona, Italy.
Gender: male
Re: Very primitive and very effective forge!
Reply #6 - Dec 10th, 2012 at 2:33pm
 
Don't worry Thom, I'll not poison myself, I have to escort you to the next Montelago  Grin
If I die forging, you'll inherit the keys of my Punto.
Oh no wait you don't really need them  Cheesy
Greetings,
Mauro.
Back to top
 

Like! Smiley https://www.facebook.com/Arte-Picena-238289793027749/timeline/
Greetings,
Mauro.

Mauro Fiorentini - 339-525
 
IP Logged
 
Teg
Interfector Viris Spurii
*****
Offline



Posts: 1113
Central Europe
Gender: male
Re: Very primitive and very effective forge!
Reply #7 - Dec 10th, 2012 at 3:45pm
 
Mauro Fiorentini wrote on Dec 10th, 2012 at 2:33pm:
Don't worry Thom, I'll not poison myself, I have to escort you to the next Montelago  Grin
If I die forging, you'll inherit the keys of my Punto.
Oh no wait you don't really need them  Cheesy
Greetings,
Mauro.


You know how I am: Always a little bit overcautious. Wink
For next Montelago the august is already marked in the agenda and the funds are reserved!
And about the Punto: Well, inside I get, but I still have to figure out how to knot ignition keys Tongue

Happy forging!
Teg
Back to top
 
 
IP Logged
 
Sons of benjamin
Descens
***
Offline



Posts: 190
Gender: male
Re: Very primitive and very effective forge!
Reply #8 - Dec 10th, 2012 at 9:34pm
 
Lol that's a lot better than anything I've ever made.  The best I've done is a hollow tractor rim (4' in diameter) buried in the ground, with a stone brick floor.  I usually just dig a hole and cover it.  A leaf blower gets it hot enough to actually be of use, but it is horribly inefficient.  Oh well... I don't have the time, materials, or know-how to make a better one...

Great job, btw.
Back to top
 

Judges 20:16 "Out of all this people there were seven hundred chosen men left handed.  Every one of these was a slinger of stones to a hairbreadth and would not miss."
 
IP Logged
 
Page Index Toggle Pages: 1
Send Topic Print
(Moderators: Bill Skinner, Chris, Mauro Fiorentini, Curious Aardvark, Rat Man, David Morningstar, Masiakasaurus)