Recently I made myself a rough knife and upon showing it to Garth, a mate of mine, he expressed an interest for me to build a bowie for him.
In exchange I will get a 25 tonne hydraulic jack that I wish to make a press with.
In the past, my heat treatment for tools I made are quite iffy, with heat bead and a vacuum cleaner rig as a blower.
So it is time for me to build a forge.
A few days ago, a member of another forum offered a forge and with his expertise in gas heating, he could help me with the bits and pieced that is needed to make a good forge.
So, last Saturday, I visited him to pick up the materials.
Well, you will see someone who is passionate about making things when you see his shed!!
I am duly impressed!!
Anyhow, after showing me how his gas forge work (WOW!!) He assembled the bits that I need for my forge.
Here are some of the goodies that I got from him.
Next stop is to cut open the bottle so I could stuff in the ceramic wool insulator.
After I stuff in the insulator, I weld it back, with my clumsy welding skill now it looks really ugly.. oh well
Then I cut out the opening, and make a "door way" from a stiff piece of refractory slab..
I was too impatient to see how it works, so at this point I just light it up for a minute or two, just to see how the fire looks like..
Pretty good I guess.
Next I reopen the "Door" and slop in some refractory concrete for the floor of the furnace
So I am done..
and left with waiting for the concrete to dry..
Rather than just sitting twidling my thumb, I decided to start on Garth's bowie.
Here is what I am up to..
Not bad for a weekend..