First things first you need to prioritise so open up the emergency brandy, pate and biscuits and give the situation a lot of thought.
Metal Tool Manufacture in a Survival Situation
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Have any of you seen the film 'The Hunted' with Tommy Lee Jones? There's a scene in it where the guy being chased strips a leaf spring, makes a tiny fire and forges it into a knife, no bellows or anything! And all this seems to happen in no time at all. At the same time, tommy has fashioned a knife with some flint. I quite like the film as a whole save for that one scene
i have seen it and its a good film, but to answer your question its possible, it would be very basic but doable. i cant remember what size the fire was but it would need to be only about a foot across, its more about the coal bed than the fire really, the more embers that touch the steel the better it is at heating, it would take longer than with forced air of course but doable...
hope this helps on that one, dave will be along soon to tell me of and correct all i said...
since im crap at metal work id just smash the glass and wrap a bit of seat covering around it, save the battery for sparking up tinder and use the car as shelter 
i have seen it and its a good film, but to answer your question its possible, it would be very basic but doable. i cant remember what size the fire was but it would need to be only about a foot across, its more about the coal bed than the fire really, the more embers that touch the steel the better it is at heating, it would take longer than with forced air of course but doable...
hope this helps on that one, dave will be along soon to tell me of and correct all i said...
Not only doable but pretty much the common practice for the Nepalese Kamis I believe.
I've seen the hunted too. Lannyman is right that a naturally aspirated fire will get hot enough to forge in, but... Like he also says, it is a case of having enough coals (the part that is hot enough) in contact with the metal and they need to have adequate oxygen getting through them to keep burning. In the case of the film he has a small camp fire and is forging a large piece of leafspring. The fire would be fine if he were making arrow heads from bicycle spokes, but not nearly up to it for a leaf spring! To get a chunk of steel like that hot enough to forge, you would need a bonfire and a lot of fuel, time and a long pair of tongs! If you were to be beating on a bit of mild steel, then it would be hard work if not red hot and as long as you can get it to above 600 or so (which a camp fire would allow), then it would anneal enough to continue, but leaf springs just aren't that forgiving.
Of course, he could have managed it if he had constructed a wind driven forge, a bit like a Dakota oven (I think I've seen them on here before) but he would need to be on a hillside with a stiff breeze and be able to cut the wood up into chunks rather than long sticks that would burn away before coaling at the bottom. If he had an air supply such as bellows, then wood works fine in a forge, just a little flamey and you still need to cut/break the wood down a bit to encourage coal formation
Santaman, if you have any youtube links to those folk I'd love to see them. Always keen to expand my knowledge
Spiritwalker, you are a genius! Your single post has just rendered the whole thread moot Why didn't I think to just smash a window?!
Of course, he could have managed it if he had constructed a wind driven forge, a bit like a Dakota oven (I think I've seen them on here before) but he would need to be on a hillside with a stiff breeze and be able to cut the wood up into chunks rather than long sticks that would burn away before coaling at the bottom. If he had an air supply such as bellows, then wood works fine in a forge, just a little flamey and you still need to cut/break the wood down a bit to encourage coal formation
Santaman, if you have any youtube links to those folk I'd love to see them. Always keen to expand my knowledge
Spiritwalker, you are a genius! Your single post has just rendered the whole thread moot
Why didn't I think to just smash a window?!
since im crap at metal work id just smash the glass and wrap a bit of seat covering around it, save the battery for sparking up tinder and use the car as shelter
not a lot you can do with a pile of 5mm cubes of safety glass other than put a hole in your shelter
not a lot you can do with a pile of 5mm cubes of safety glass other than put a hole in your shelter
Has the vehicle got mirrors?
That would do for a blade source...
why do we need this blade ???
Protection the first Priority is covered (PFAWF mnemonic)
we have just processed a lot of Fuel and lit a fire (to run a forge) so warmth
we have a shelter made the car out of the wind n rain
Oh wait hang on ive a EDC in my pocket and another in the car so i can whittle till rescue and have a brew of the kit in the boot
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