Lets do a Charcoal Forge

Church & Son

Well-Known Member
All you need for a forge is a hole in the ground, some type of fuel and a way to put oxygen to it. In a lot of the world it is still done this simply. A very talented Bladesmith by the name of Tim Lively put these elements in a portable, inexpensive and very efficient design. This one is pattered after his.
I started with a 5.5 gallon oval washtub. (this one was used as a planter at a wedding) , a 30″ long piece of 1″ black iron pipe, good old ‘Carolina clay, an old vacuum cleaner hose, a tupperware container and a 14″ hand cranked blower.

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I drilled 1.5″ holes in the ends of the tub for the pipe ( called a Tweer in a forge) and a bucket of clay. Tim used adobe , I have clay.

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All I’m doing is building a U shaped trough down to the tweer which will insulate the sides. I’m shooting for about 2″ of fuel under the iron and the same above. Get your hands dirty, will not hurt bad. And then I let it dry overnight.

Next I drill a series of 1/4″ holes in the tweer about an inch or so apart(air outlets) and I needed to adapt my 3 1/2″ outlet on the blower to the 1 1/4″ hose. I went through Lovely Brides Tupperware and found one that fit the outlet and cut a hole in the bottom for the hose. A piece of HVAC tape seals it.

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I need to plug the other end of the tweer pipe. If you buy pipe get one end threaded and use a cap. I had this pipe laying around and it’s not threaded so a chunk of wood out of the burn pile will do for now. We need this end removable to clean out the ash on occasion.

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Look, a ChurchandSon ‘hawk to trim it (Sold separately)

And here it is connected to the blower. I started this Saturday afternoon and now it’s Sunday.

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Stump logs are a Blacksmiths friend. And a washtub of homebrew charcoal

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Lets crank this thing up. The clay is still damp and it will crack as it drys, after the first fire I’ll put a thin coat on it to fill cracks. The clay works good, after several fires it turns very hard and reflects heat well. Think of a fired pottery finish.

ChurchandSon at work. I’m the good looking one with the glasses on my head and VooDoo is the long haired one with the ever present headphones (He’s a musician, I think they come standard)
The in a former life horse trailer is "Redbud Mobile 1", we throw all our stuff in it and use it at demonstrations, fairs and reenactments.

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See who's doing all the work? Don't want to blister those talented fingers!

And throw a little iron in it. That is a railroad bolt, 1 1/4″ thick.''

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That’s after about 5-6 minutes. It will get hotter as it cures and will be easier to bring up to heat.

It doesn’t take much money or time to get heatin’ and beatin’. Just the desire. Over the next few weeks we will be making a post anvil and some hammers, all with re-used materials......Randy
 
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Thanks Gents, Wade, it's gonna be a 'hawk, I annealed 6 of them last night. They came from a bridge built in 1899 and are supposed to be high carbon. Days are getting longer so maybe have time to do a little beatin' in the evenings. Brad, a lot is laying around. My first one was in a old grill and I made a box bellows.......Randy
 
Here's a pic of mine.. I made adobe from red clay and sand I found in my yard, mixed in some ashes. I've gotten it hot enough to burn off steel.. ;)

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They will get very hot. I've never burnt up steel in a propane, but I have with charcoal. I have heard of people mixing in Kitty Litter as it is mostly clay......Randy
 
Excellent tutorial, hoss. I've been thinking about making one of those, but I'm hunting for a blower first.
 
You can always use a hair dryer if you have power, until you can find a hand crank blower. I know it kind of feels like cheating but, the main thing is to do what you can, with what you've got. ;)
 
I know it kind of feels like cheating but

IMO,No such thing as cheating. I simply CHOOSE not to use electricity. I can afford the finest grinder, I choose to use a file and heat. To me, the hunt is as much fun as the capture .Just as Mr. Vaughn showed us in another post, Mr. Rucker makes beautiful knives with hand tools and a hand held grinder and it certainly suits him. Use whats available....Randy
 
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Thank you for the tutorial. I am adding that to my ever increasing "One of these days" list.

I do have a question though. With that being a galvanized tub, are there any worries about the fumes? Or is it insulated well enough that the galvanizing never gets that hot?
 
Fergy, it never gets warm, even at welding temps. The U shape concentrates the heat in a small channel, great for blades, and the clay insulates it. If I'm doing smaller iron I block off about half of the tweer holes with a small piece of steel and fill that end with charcoal to rake into the fire as needed.......Randy
 
Seeing the work done here and the friendly sharing of knowledge has inspired me to jump in. I'm attempting to put together a charcoal forge using a reclaimed bbq pit made from what looks like a forklift's propane fuel tank. There is no clay to speak of here, I was thinking of using a #4 sand bed under the pipe and forming a heat channel using fire brick. Is this doable??? Any suggestions? Thanks.
sorry for the bad pic, camera is running low on batteries...
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Hey, I don't see why not, anything to insulate the heat. Also I read of making clay with sand and unscented kitty litter, which is basically clay based.....Randy
 
Thanks, I'll try the litter/sand/ash mix. Found the couplings to connect the air supply. No hand cranks here that I've seen so I'm going to use the hose and HVLP spray unit for now. Ordered the book by Karl Schroen, "Hand Forged Knife...." Finding a suitable anvil here on the Big Island of Hawaii is tough, any ideas on a workable surface? I'm a carpenter by trade since the early eighties but a complete rook in this craft
 
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