DIY Traditional Blacksmith Forge Guide

The rows that check it

• 12 confirmed
• 2 amended
• 1 unresolved
• 7 marked for safety

• I1 confirmed Safety Zinc on galvanised steel boils at red heat; grinding, welding or forging it gives metal fume fever: shivers, metallic taste, fever, nausea in 4 to 10 hours, lasting a day or two
• I10 unresolved Safety Cast iron drum cracks when water hits it hot or the fire is built against one side; never quench in the drum
• I2 confirmed Safety Cadmium plating fume can kill; plating of a colour steel is not is treated as cadmium; a doctor the same day
• I3 amended Safety Carbon monoxide from the charcoal fire kills without smell in an hour at the levels a closed workshop reaches; 400 ppm kills within an hour; forge outdoors or in a shed open at …
• I5 confirmed Safety Lead in old paint, pipes, batteries and flashing; lead fume goes to the bones; chromium plate gives its own fume
• I6 confirmed Safety Grinder: guard on, never above rated speed, never a cracked wheel, light pressure; safety glasses; cotton or wool, never synthetics; water and sand at hand
• K2 amended Safety Molten iron on a damp mould or a drop of water in the crucible turns to steam a thousand times its volume and throws the iron back; everything dry, leather, face shield, three …
• I34 confirmed JABOD: African and Asian ancestry three thousand years old; box 60 cm square, 18 to 23 cm deep; trench two fists, 20 cm by 10 cm by 10 to 13 cm; pipe 20 to 25 mm inside, 60 to 90 …
• I35 confirmed Agricola 1556 drew the forge's ancestor with water bellows; Moxon 1683 the London smith's hearth
• I36 confirmed Brake drum: 23 cm inside, 5 cm deep, 7 to 11 kg; 50 mm flange, 15 cm nipple, tee, 12 cm ash pipe with cap or water bucket; grate of 6 to 12 mm plate with 10 mm holes; upturned oil …
• I37 confirmed Coal wants a deep pot and bottom blast; charcoal in a deep pot blows out in sparks and burns the steel; charcoal wants a shallow side-blast trench
• I38 confirmed Blower: pressure not volume, computer and room fans fail; hand-crank blower half a turn a second; double bellows with weighted board until the 1800s; Japanese box bellows blows on …
• I39 confirmed Fire zones: oxidising at the mouth, reducing a hand's width above; the work buried under the mound, never on top; flame colours blue to yellow-white, welding when the blue stops
• I40 confirmed Colour scale: dark red 650 to 700, bright red 800 to 900, yellow 1,000 to 1,100, yellow-white with sparks 1,200 to 1,300 welding, white sizzling burning; tempering colours straw …
• I42 confirmed Coal about 1 kg/h at light work; charcoal nearly the same value by weight, a tenth as dense; a day about 100 litres or 12 to 15 kg charcoal, 50 to 60 kg wood; a village smith 200 …

In the Index

Fire and fuel Iron and steel Tools and their making