First burner tube!

Apologies for the fuzzy picture, This is the first burner pipe that has been flared. The flare causes what is known as the venturi effect. Basically the gas being forced through the funnel like side of the burner pipe, causes a vacuum, which sucks air(oxygen) into the pipe making the flame on the other side hotter than if it was just gas alone. This is part of the burner I will be making for my forge. It's coming along very nicely, I simply ran the torch through it and the flame out the other side was jet like. LOTS OF HAPPINESS!

The forge awaits!

This is what I have gathered so far in order to make my new forge, a length of steel pipe and some angle iron for the legs. It's going to be beautiful, I will get busy with first straightening the edge where it was cut with a cutting torch.

Car spring being used

As was mentioned in the previous post, I needed to figure out a way to transfer the the insignia onto the ring. I finally decided to make a hot stamp, as it was going to need to be hardened and hold its shape, I needed to use a steel that could be hardened and hold a good edge. A previous stamp that I had made I discovered started to deform and get rounded because although it looked like a piece of stainless steel it didn't harden.This is when I became fully appreciative of my find of a car shock absorber spring on Sunday the 2nd of March. Springs have a high carbon content, which is great for i needed to make.

Car shock absorb-er spring

Last week I was on my way back from the petrol station. At one of the intersections I saw lots of scattered pieces from an accident that looked fairly recent. Amongst the bits and pieces I found a spring from a shock absorber. I immediately made a left turn to go and pick it up, Spring such as shock absorber springs, leaf springs have a high carbon content. Through many hours of looking at knife makers and different types of steels which are good for knife forging, springs were always mentioned as being great for knife making because of their high carbon content which is excellent for holding an edge.

Anatomy of smitthing tongs

                                                 This is the basic anatomy of black smith tongs

persimmonforge.blogspot.com   

                            These are some pictures of my first attempt at forging some blacksmith tongs