This afternoon was the inaugural sparking of my new forge!
I was so busy forging, that I forgot to take any pictures until afterwards. Guess I’m not much of a blogger, eh? But this was the set-up. I’ve got a sturdy steel work table that I put the crane rail on. The table already has a heavy vise (as I don’t have a post vise yet, it’ll have to do for now) mounted to it. I put my tools (hammers, tongs, punches & chisels) on the shelf underneath.
I burned hardwood lump charcoal as the fuel for the forge. It was good & hot, with little to no smoke, but the sparks (a.k.a. “fire fleas”) were intense.
To get the forge ready, I had to make a new cover for the ash dump. I just cut a piece of 18 gauge sheet steel to fit. The blower needed a new belt. I was able to make one from a 60″ leather belt. Beyond that, a light wire brushing to get off the worst of the rust and I was in business.
… yes, I said a 60″ leather belt, as in to hold up your pants. Apparently they do make them that large. The guy at the store where I found it (a small shop in the mall that repairs shoes, sells belts, wallets, etc) said that in all his years, he’s only sold 2 – and that I didn’t look anything like the first guy.
Despite tightening up all of the fasteners on the legs & bracing, the forge still has an annoying wobble. Will have to take the time to look into what’s causing that.
To mark the occasion, we made a family day out of it. My wife, kids and parents all came over to watch me do a bit of smithing. Made my mom a bunch of drive hooks for using in her garden. We had a small picnic dinner afterwards.
Now, I know some smiths may think this sacrilege, however …
When I was done barbequeing steel for the day, the forge had a nice hot bed of coals in it (I’d been using plain old hardwood charcoal don’t forget). So rather than firing up the BBQ, I threw a grate over the forge pan and cooked up some “Forge Dogs” for the kids. Don’t think I’ll make a habit of it, but my son in particular, thought that was just great.
… Forge Dogs. If anyone actually reads this site, I’ll take a bit of ribbing over that one for sure.
