What I Doed Today,

[David Keller NC]

Alan/Harry - Thanks for the advice. The brake drum idea came from the 'net, and it was specifically designed for coal, with the idea that the coal around the outside of the pot doesn't burn, but gets "cooked" into coke as it's gradually moved toward the center fire.

I may have to use charcoal (I have a ready source of good, white oak/hickory/maple charcoal), because I live in the city and the neighbors would probably be immediately alarmed by "green smoke" ;-)

And - this will be done outside. I won't be doing it all that frequently, so I'll just wait for a nice Saturday. Should make the coal/charcoal dust problem a non-problem.

[harry strasil]

Monday, I used muratic acid on the brick forge to clean up some of the mess.

Today Tuesday, I picked up the donated hearth plate and the coal bin plate and got them installed.

The tuyere bolted in place and a few bricks set in on the hearth plate, the fire bowl is to the left awaiting placement.



The Fire Bowl mudded in place using 1/3 crushed dry horse apples and 2/3 field clay. And brick dust sprinkeled over the fill clay.


A wet burlap sack laid over the fresh wet clay to prevent it from drying to quick.

[jeremy levine]

Are the red bricks, refractory brick or just plain old brick ?

[harry strasil]

the red bricks are soft bricks, often referred to as chimney brick, The dark bricks are hard bricks with 3 holes in them, they won't take the heat and abuse.

[David Keller NC]

Larry - OK, another few dumb newbie questions - What's the fire bowl and (tuyere?) made of? Cast iron? Fired Clay?

And what're dry horse apples (manure?). I've heard of using dried cow manure as a bonding agent in a clay mixture used in bronze investment casting, but in that instance the mold is destroyed for every piece, so durability isn't an issue.

[harry strasil]

Cast Iron, David.
The fibers in horse manure have a tendency to hold the clay together, much like reinforcing rod in concrete. Its a really old method used by early smiths.

For those who would like to view a slide show of the forge build.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v8...t=3b55e9da.pbw

I got it done yesterday 10/02/08 except for a few minor details.

[Kevin L. Pauba]

Really nice forge, harry. Living in Omaha, it would be interesting to visit your area and see it in action. Is the forge at the Plainsman Museum in Aurora?

[harry strasil]

Kevin, its 15 miles south of Nebraska in Brown County at Hiawatha, Ks

[Thom Sturgill]

Harry - as a side note to your comment about radioactivity. I worked on the construction of a nuke plant that the owner had originally scheduled for four plants. After building two, they decided to try to use the remaining area to build coal burning plants. The NRC quickly nixed that plan because the radioactivity level of the coal was much higher than the nuclear monitoring would allow.

[David Keller NC]

Harry/others - Thanks for the advice on blacksmithing. I decided it would benefit me to read a bit before throwing together equipment, so I bought "The Backyard Blacksmith" and "Professional Smithing". I figured the $30 investment in these books is likely to save me way more than that in mistakes...