[TheForge] Carbon loss with gas forges

[Bruce Freeman]

If you only want to heat-treat, you might do better with an electric
furnace.  Tube furnaces are just large enough to permit a tube to pass
through.  You can make one with NiChrome heating element (check
ebay.com) and soft (insulating) firebricks.  The advantage of electric
is precise temperature control.  They'll easily heat to cherry red,
which is probably the most you'll need for heat treatments.  Invest
in a thermocouple and millivolt gauge, and download the thermocouple
chart from the omegaengineering.com website (which is a good source of
thermocouples) to make yourself a cheap pyrometer.

On Fri, Apr 9, 2010 at 4:49 AM, Matt Stevens <Matt at stevens.net.nz> wrote:
> Jerry Frost wrote:
>> What kinds of projects are you thinking of making? Wanting a good welding
>> gas forge usually indicates to me someone wanting to forge blades but that's
>> not universal by any means. Having a chamber only slightly larger than the
>> work works better than a large one but it's hard to design and build one
>> that's the perfect size unless you have a single product in mind.
>
> Eventually I'd like to forge swords, but realistically knives, tanto &
> short swords up to say 18-24 inches would keep me occupied for a while.
> I recognise there's a fair few forging and bladesmith skills to aquire &
>  smaller blades are obviously faster & easier to make. I like lots of
> quick projects for gaining experience.
>
> Initially I'll use the forge for heat treatment rather than forging,
> I'll use scrap steel & grinders for my first blades.
>
> Of the gas forge designs I've seen online I've narrowed my first one
> down to Zoeller forges "Bucket forge", with two burners. Having said
> that, any input is welcome.
> http://zoellerforge.com/simplegasforge.html
> I've now gotta source the parts here in NZ, not as easy as it might seem :-)
>
> Part of what has given my interest a boost is the opportunity to take
> part in a day class early May, in Tokyo making a blade using traditional
>  Japanese techniques. I've read about bladesmithing on & off over 30
> odd years and the opportunity to push & shape metal kinda pushes my buttons.
>
> Cheers
> Matt
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-- 
Bruce
NJ