What forge do YOU have?

I have several, one a homemade coal forge, Riverside Machine (Uncle Al) forced air forge and a diamond back, the only one I regret is the diamondback, never will get my money again, EVER.


Can I ask why they won't? Seems to me you would get very uneven heat with there forges.
 
Can I ask why they won't? Seems to me you would get very uneven heat with there forges.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say it probably has something to do with some certain recent comments by the company owner. I'm not going to go into details here, but it shouldn't be hard to find...
 
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I'm going to go out on a limb and say it properly has something to do with some certain recent comments by the company owner. I'm not going to go into details here, but it shouldn't be hard to find...

Ah. Ok. Sorry wasn't trying to start anything bad. I just like to know what people and companies to stay clear of.
 
I have several, one a homemade coal forge, Riverside Machine (Uncle Al) forced air forge and a diamond back, the only one I regret is the diamondback, never will get my money again, EVER.

I echo that sentiment entirely. While a degree of circumlocution may be in order as Geoff suggests, suffice it to say the owner is blatantly ideologically aligned with certain highly unfavorable elements of society... feel free of course to trim that bit if it's too much, Stacy.

I think Chile Forge and Riverside and some others do have good products, but for my money it's always best to build your own once you know what you need and how to build that. A good forge is relatively simple and inexpensive to build, with a well-equipped metal shop.

As Karl notes, a vertical forge with adequate insulation is pretty hard to beat for bladesmithing. I run a 14" OD vertical with 2" of inswool, satanite, and bubble alumina around the doors where flux and wear are concentrated. Mine has a wool ceiling but sits on a pad of bricks, insulative light kiln bricks that I had on hand... works very well and once up to welding heat, stays there while consuming relatively little propane. The burner is blown with a big squirrel cage and has a 2" gate valve to control the blast.

I have an 18" shell that I'm gonna line pretty soon, seems like sooner or later you always have a billet that pushes your heat chamber size a bit far.
 
On top is my latest of two 12 inch interior with a ribbon burner. Up to 1500 in about 5 minutes with pid controls. It has 2 inches of koa wool with about a 1/2 inch of castolite and a coating of itc 100 I can take it down below 1200 but at 1300 it's pretty smooth. I learned (still a lot to learn :)) on a ribbon burner and a venturi. My teacher preferred the ribbon burner for most knife work so that's what I built. The larger forge is good but takes longer to heat up at 18 inches.
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I have an Ellis 8-HT forge I bought from High Temperature Tools and Refractory, with a forced air burner that usually runs on about 2 1/2 lbs. of gas. It lets me forge most anything I've needed to.

Also, a Kayne and Son's coal forge I bought second hand. All I need to do is weld a table up for it.
 
One of my project forges ( there are probably five others) is Ron Frazier's old sword forge. It is a four foot long, five burner venturi. The rats ate into the kaowool where there were cracks. I am planning on re-lining it with new wool and castolite. I doubt I will hardly ever use it, but it sure is cool. It is on a big frame type stand and the whole thing weighs about 400 pounds.

I am a forge and anvil junkie, because I can't turn one down if the price is right ... or free. I have five forges that are operational ( I use only two of them normally). The two I use most are my NC Whisper Lowboy and the prototype of the Graha that I field tested for Atlas.. The main storage shed in the smithy has four stainless steel forges in the works. I set them aside until I had the new shop done. One is a 30" vertical HT forge for swords.

My eventual and ultimate forge project is a ceramic chip forge. They are sort of a high-tech blend of an old farrier's forge and a modern gas forge. No smoke/smell, no fare up, no going out, ... all with the ability to burry a blade in hot coals and have great heat control. Heats up in 5-10 minutes, and can be turned off and walked away from.
 
Hoping to cast my ribbon burner tonight with mizzou, once that's done I'll post it up. Otherwise my 2 prior forges are only notable as examples of what not to do, and I bought an Atlas mini for small work and love it.
 
One of my project forges ( there are probably five others) is Ron Frazier's old sword forge. It is a four foot long, five burner venturi. The rats ate into the kaowool where there were cracks. I am planning on re-lining it with new wool and castolite. I doubt I will hardly ever use it, but it sure is cool. It is on a big frame type stand and the whole thing weighs about 400 pounds.

I am a forge and anvil junkie, because I can't turn one down if the price is right ... or free. I have five forges that are operational ( I use only two of them normally). The two I use most are my NC Whisper Lowboy and the prototype of the Graha that I field tested for Atlas.. The main storage shed in the smithy has four stainless steel forges in the works. I set them aside until I had the new shop done. One is a 30" vertical HT forge for swords.

My eventual and ultimate forge project is a ceramic chip forge. They are sort of a high-tech blend of an old farrier's forge and a modern gas forge. No smoke/smell, no fare up, no going out, ... all with the ability to burry a blade in hot coals and have great heat control. Heats up in 5-10 minutes, and can be turned off and walked away from.


That's awesome! I would be interested in a ceramic chip forge WIP when you do it. :D

Daniel.
 
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