Get Medieval: How to Build a Metal Forge

Forging steel is significant for several reasons. It's one of the oldest metal-forming operations in existence. Blacksmiths throughout history have (and continue to) forge steel to create things ranging from practical to beautiful and everywhere in between. Industrial processes often involve forging not only for the efficiency with which it forms metal, but also for the way in which it strengthens the part by aligning the grains in the steel along the lines of its shape. Did you know that you could be doing this same time-tested technique at home? Here is how I built my own propane forge.

At my old shop, I had a talented blacksmith as a neighbor (check out his work: www.andyuprightmetalworks.com) who got me interested enough to take a stab at forging on my own. I did some interwebs research and came upon a few Web sites on which people documented their own forge builds. Almost all of them used a burner design called the "Reil Burner," which has the distinct DIY advantage of being constructed almost entirely from plumbing parts. If you have access to a drill press or a drill and a very steady hand, you can build this burner.

After finding out how easy this was to do, I was hooked on the idea of forging at home. I needed three things to start. A hammer, an anvil and a forge. One of the things that I find most fascinating about blacksmiths is that they traditionally build all the rest of their tooling starting with those three simple items, and in so doing, learn their trade. The hammer and the anvil are easy to obtain. Lets look at how to construct a simple propane forge.

Lets look at the burner first. There is an awful lot of forge related and other information on Ron Reil's page, including the details of just how and why his propane burner works so well. If you want to cut to the chase, as I'm going to do here, then start with this set of plans for the Reil Burner. I also recommend reading at least some of the supporting documentation on the site, such as this page about the EZ-Burner.

I made my burner very slightly differently than the Reil burner. Using an idea I stole years ago from someone else's forge page (I cannot remember exactly where or I would cite it), I used a MIG welding tip as the propane gas jet instead of a #60 drill hole. In theory, that would have allowed me to adjust the fuel / air mixture by changing welding tips, though I never did. I'm fairly certain that either method will work equally well. I also mounted my 1/8" gas tube through the pipe reducer rather than on the face of it. Again, I don't think this makes any difference in the function of my burner. It just seemed like a cleaner way to assemble the burner.

Read more at: https://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2009-11/build-your-own-propane-forge#page-3