The Forge: Building a Forced-Air Solid-Fuel Forge from Salvaged Materials

A hands-on companion to the field-metallurgy report, with two builds: a side-blast forge that is little more than a box of earth, for charcoal, and a brake-drum bottom-blast forge for coal. It puts forge-welding heat at about 1200 to 1300 °C and covers clay and sand linings, carbon monoxide limits, a warning against galvanised pipe, several bellows and a barrel retort for charcoal. It leans on a blacksmithing forum, a vendor's pages and blogs, and mixes imperial units with dollar prices.