3 inch metal pipe...

[demographic]

Inlet for a gas bottle wood burning stove? Mind that's only using a few inches.

 

[Stanleythecat]

Yup, several! Simplest is a hole in the ground about 6" across and 3" deep with 22mm copper pipe for the air supply (angled into the ground so it just comes into the 'wall' of the hole. Keep the earth around the pipe damp and it won't burn or melt, even when using smithing coke as fuel. I've forge-welded with this type of setup.

Never used a Lively style forge before, but apparently it's quite specialised for bladesmithing. I don't really do much of that myself, but so long as you're not trying to make massive blades I can't see why you might want such a long forge. After all unless you have a power hammer (or small team of well-trained strikers) you can only forge a few inches of steel at a time before you lose the heat. For the average 'bushy' knife or axe I can't see the benefit over a more conventional side-blast or bottom-blast forge.

Never really got a decent bellows system up and running, small electric blowers were always much more convenient. Squirrel-cage types from cars work well. Recently got an electric airbed pump for a handful of change -- it's a lot smaller than the blower I have been using from a DAF van so if it works well enough it'll be damned handy.

Thanks for the advice Matt, definitely looking to only forge small stuff anyway, maybe the odd hook gouge for woodturning far in the future when competence levels are reached! Its not so much the dimensions of the Lively forge more the principle of it being cheap and reusable whilst still low tech and easy to make.

Quick question: why is side blast a good method and how would you set that up for a primitive style forge?

Leo

 

[Matt.S]

Quick question: why is side blast a good method and how would you set that up for a primitive style forge?

There's not much practical difference between side blast (air in from the side) and bottom blast (air in from the bottom); both work fine and I tend to use whatever is available at the time. Typically side blast is much simpler to build than bottom blast; it's essentially a piece of pipe stuck into the side of a fire.

For a 'primitive' setup I dig a circular hole in the earth, perhaps 6" across and 3" deep. I then dig a trench leading into the side 'wall' of the hole into which I put the air pipe ('tuyere' or 'tue'), making sure that the end does not protrude into the hole, and that the other end of the pipe sticks out of the ground at some point so I can blow air into it. I then backfill the trench and make sure that the earth around it is quite damp -- this will keep the pipe from burning or melting. Obviously do not use plastic pipe, or any kind of plated metal. I have used 22mm copper water pipe before -- not ideal but it works OK.

In use you want to keep the hole filled with a bed of burning coals, and to put the work in the fire on the same level as the surrounding ground. Keep another layer of burning coals on top of the workpiece. Make sure your fuel is no bigger than a walnut. I like 'bean' size coal, which is about the size of a hazelnut. You might want to add one, two or three walls to keep the top of your fire contained -- brick, earth or sheetmetal will work.

I've also built a simple forge from a hollow square of housebricks. Worked just fine, but I woudl suggest you be very careful, they're not designed for that sort of intense heat.

You can burn most types of solid fuel, but charcoal is an excellent fuel as well as potentially sustainable and free to make.