induction forging?

To be honest I think people who forge knives like fire and they like hitting things with hammers hard.

Trying to make it more clinical may suck the joy out of the process.
 
Some artist blacksmiths use them. They work great with round stock. You have to make a coil for every shape and size you do with flat stock. Changing them and tuning the unit isn't as simple as adjusting a forge.
They are expensive and take a more fully equipped shop. IIRC, a few knifemakers played with them a decade or so ago and weren't impressed.
 
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induction forging would still require hitting steel with your hammer, it only makes heating the steel MUCH faster & less messy & no need to worry about fumes & exhaust etc ;P

(does anyone cook with induction & steel pots/pans??)
 
dirc said:
induction forging would still require hitting steel with your hammer, it only makes heating the steel MUCH faster & less messy & no need to worry about fumes & exhaust etc ;P

(does anyone cook with induction & steel pots/pans??)
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All the cooking here is on a gas stove top with a gas convection oven. Or BBQ on charcoal or for fast good a propane searing grill.

Who would rather have a steak from a microwave vs. fire?

Flames are primal. They may not be better, faster or cleaner but pure efficiency is not always the best way to go for an art.

A big factory like Buck or someone might use one.
 
We have an induction forge. Occasionally we use it, but it is rare. The propane forges do 99.99% of the heating.

One hazard to be aware of when using an induction forge. Zippers, metal rivets, watches and rings can get hot without warning.

Chuck
 
yes, very good point - when cooking with an induction stove - anything magnetic and close to the 'element' is going to heat up fast
if I may ask, how many watts is your induction forge? how long does it take to heat a standard 1/8" billet?

D Danke42 - this is not the same as a microwave ; ) induction heats the iron - and cooking happens as it would with any hot iron skillet or pan
 
dirc said:
yes, very good point - when cooking with an induction stove - anything magnetic and close to the 'element' is going to heat up fast
if I may ask, how many watts is your induction forge? how long does it take to heat a standard 1/8" billet?

D Danke42 - this is not the same as a microwave ; ) induction heats the iron - and cooking happens as it would with any hot iron skillet or pan
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Yes that's a simple analogy. A microwave oven is a common tool in almost every house but it will never have the same mojo as a charcoal grill. And rightly so.

You'll never sell anyone on anything by telling them what they need. You sell stuff by giving people what they want.

I'm going to posit that the smiths here like fire, sparks smoke and drama. Some kind of convener belt cornucopia of efficiency isn't fun for anyone.
 
Danke42 said:
I'm going to posit that the smiths here like fire, sparks smoke and drama. Some kind of convener belt cornucopia of efficiency isn't fun for anyone.
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Maybe, but it seems like more people here use HT ovens than forges. I suspect that many here will jump on this if it ends up working better.

-Tyson
 
I've always been interested in them for quick spot heats. I think they would be great for heating up tangs for annealing/making adjustments.
 
Danke42 said:
I'm going to posit that the smiths here like fire, sparks smoke and drama. Some kind of convener belt cornucopia of efficiency isn't fun for anyone.
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While this might be true, I don't think this is the main reason why these aren't more regularly seen. This reminds me of the debate I've heard before about how smiths who use propane, power hammers/presses, and other modern machines shouldn't call themselves a true "blacksmith", and only coal fires and hand-hammering qualifies. The typical response to this is, "If blacksmiths in antiquity had access to power hammers and hydraulic presses, they would have been using them."

I know quite a number of blacksmiths who have induction forges that get used on a regular basis in their businesses. As mentioned above, they excell at making a localized heat which is great for a lot of blacksmithing operations, allowing one to work an area without having to worry about messing up a nearby area that's already forged. It's great for doing things like punching and drifting holes for railings, etc where you only need 1" of heat in the middle of a bar. It's also ideal for upsetting (making a bar thicker) sections in the middle of a bar. These same smiths also use propane forges for most of what they do, however, because there are only so many applications that need a small, local heat.
I could see this being a viable option for forging a blade if one had limited access to gas or coal, or if setting up a forge is not possible due to insurance liability or noise restrictions. But I think most bladesmiths would agree that it's good to have the whole blade hot when forging to allow you to make any adjustments as needed during the forging process.
One benefit I see that induction forges would have over propane forges is when having to tighten up a twist pattern on a small section to make the twist uniform along the whole length of bar.
 
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I think this kind of thing feeds into the same debate of why forge when you can just grind out blanks all day.

It comes out to people do thing a certain way because they like doing it that way. I think a lot of knife makers (not all of course) prefer to be more on the pimitive side of life than the clinical. And I also strongly think that if people like what they're doing that's what leads to good results vs. all the advanced tooling there is.
 
yeah, the reason I'm thinking of it is the fumes primarily (no propane or coal to deal with) - you can use an induction forge in your basement as long as it's mostly concrete / non-flammable

seems like a great setup for winter forging in the basement, you can still hammer till your hearts content with added bonus of less time between heats -> should really allow you to work much faster
 
I looked into what it would take to build one that'd be adequate for forging knives, and parts started adding up fast. Typically the electrical components need water cooling as well, and you're not gonna find what you need at your local hardware store.

That said, I just found a 15kw unit on eBay for about $550 that has peaked my curiosity. Wonder if it'd work for more than a day...
 
I have a small 1kW induction heater that I currently use for melting salt. The only part that needs water cooling is the coil, everything else will be fine with a fan as long as the coil isn't too small.
Using it for forging requires a lot of copper tubing and a pipe bender if you want to actually get things hotter than curie temp.

https://www.spaco.org/Blacksmithing/ZVSInductionHeater/1000WattZVSInductionHeaterNotes.htm
There's a lot of good info here for those that want to try it out.
 
I'd love to get my hands on an induction heater, that'd be awesome! It'd work great for lots of little operations! Upsetting, necking down tangs, softening/red neck annealing tangs for threads or peining... So many things!

Were I actually doing production work or doing this whole knife making gig for a living, I would definitely get/make one.
 
Here is a video where Bob Kramer is using an induction heater for creating steel in a crucible, video will either be really interesting or cause a huge debate so we will see but I found the concept and execution to be amazing.
 
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