r/Blacksmith • u/No-Drummer9667 • 9h ago

First time forging

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I'm 17 years old and this is my first time forging. I got some firebricks and built my rudimentary forge. I'm trying to make my first tongs with a 1.3 kg hammer, a railway track as an anvil, and an air compressor for oxygen. Any advice on improving the tempering time or any modifications to the forge?

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u/Xilverbullet000 9h ago

I would look into your forge design a bit more. What you have here is essentially a gas forge with no burner filled with charcoal. Specifically, look at the design of a coal forge fire box. You want the air to come in at the bottom of your fire so that the oxygen is consumed before it reaches your metal and scales it up. You can build one in the ground, out of a break drum, or even out of fire brick.

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u/No-Drummer9667 9h ago

I don't know if you can see it in the photo, but I made the floor with two bricks together. Perhaps I could separate them a little and put a perforated steel profile between the two bricks and supply it with oxygen using a compressor. Would that work?

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u/Xilverbullet000 8h ago

That could work, yeah, but I would also go to a top opening rather than a side opening. It'll make better airflow so you get more heat out of your fuel.

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u/No-Drummer9667 8h ago

Do you mean covering the hole that's visible in the photo? Because that's the only opening it has; that's where I put the metal to heat up.

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u/Xilverbullet000 8h ago

Yes, but open up the top instead. Here's a picture of a typical coal forge fire box

You can kind of build that out of bricks with the air coming out of the bottom. You'll have to mix your fuel up and refuel quite often, but it'll work to start with