Coal Forge


This forge was built for about $25.
I used a sheet of 1/8" plate (scrap yard),
a used brake rotor (found laying in trash),
a 5" diameter sheet of 12 gauge stainless (shop scrap),
a 1.5" x 30 band of 12 ga stainless (shop scrap),
Pipe fittings: 1 1/4" flanged mount, 2" threaded coupling, "T" bracket (~$10 at local hardware store),
2 foot section of 1 1/4" pipe (found in shop),
2 foot section of steel conduit, which I cut down a bit ($3.50 at hardware store),
old bed frame (pulled from trash) for the legs,
3 feet of 1/4 round steel rod to stabilize legs (shop scrap).


Plans for this forge

Since most of this I found or had laying around, it only cost me about $15.
You could easily put together something like this for under $25.
If you have any questions, email me at krag@kragaxe.com.



Here's a pic where you can see the under structure. The top 1/8" plate, bolted down to a cast iron brake rotor, with a 1 1/4" galvanized pipe flange welded to the rotor axle hole. A 2" threaded fitting screwed in with a "T" head joint screwed to that. A curved section of steel conduit welded to the opening and angled so the air is directed up, and a 2 foot piece of 1 1/4" galvanized pipe with the legs welded on screwed into the bottom of the "T" fitting.
The whole forge screws apart at this joint for ease of transport.



On the inside depression in the rotor, I tack welded a section of 12 ga stainless with "breather holes". This has about 1/2" of space under it. The air comes in the pipe and then spreads out over about a 4" diameter area and up through the holes. This allows me to heat up a nice region for sheet work as well as larger rod sections.


Just another view. I need to add a higher wall section. the coals kept falling out of my forge when I was scraping them around.




This forge runs off a one duck power hair dryer (1600 btu). I started with it taped to the oriface, but it kept overheating and shutting off. Holding it about an inch or so away worked really well. I was able to take 1/2" A-2 tool steel rod from dead cold to yellow in about 3 minutes. This was with only half the duck bill on the oriface. With a full air supply, it was quite a bit hotter. I plan on retiring the duck and replacing him with a hair dryer that has the option of shutting off the heating elements.




Here's a saracen short sword that has been roughed out using this forge. This was made from and old, severely pitted leafspring that was about 5/16" thick. This came up to working heat from dead cold in about 5 minutes. Succesive re-heats were about one minute. I was using a hammer with too much roundness and had to go back over the entire thing with another hammer. The pits are deep enough, they will still be visible in the finished piece. This was more a "get back in the hang of knifemaking" piece, rather than a priceless piece of art. It'll still be a cool knife when it's done! It can darn near spilt a 2x4 in the "as is" condition...although not having a handle really, really hurts the hand!
-OK, the last pic is how it looks now. All the scale was removed and it was lightly ground across the flats. As I figured, several of the pitted areas are still there, but they don't look all that bad...kinda give it "character"! I also addeda pic of an axe head I'm making. This is 1/2" plate steel. It's hard to situate in the forge and takes a long time to initialy heat up. The rear will be split, wraped around and forge welded along the overlap in rear. This will form the haft socket. This will eventually be a large Danish axe with about a 4' haft.