Fitting a Simple Knife Handle
Building Forges and Baking Charcoal
The "Porta-Forge",
and apparently I become The Great Saiyaman while smithing.
It's been a long summer.
​
Waiting on a load of gravel for the property that never came, I broke down my previous forge and shut down smithing for a while, happily coinciding with the hottest part of the year, and decided to rebuild when none of the gravel haulers I contacted called me back.
It was inspired, somewhat, by Japanese sword forges, perhaps the most efficient design for making blades I've come across, built on the ground with a frame of cinderblocks, lined on the inside with mud, ash and firebrick. It worked, and worked well, but took up too much room for the amount of space I actually had on the inside. Also, I couldn't get the hang of kneeling or sitting while working and always ended up bending over the anvil, turning me into a sideways upper-case L after a few hours.
​​
The new forge, with air blower and small anvil.
I ended up buying a small metal tub, cutting some notches in the ends and a hole in the side for the air pipe, and lining it with my firebricks. It's a good idea for a "porta-forge" but I think it's too small to heat anything larger than a puuko knife. Still, I only used a fraction of the cinderblocks, this time as a platform, letting me work standing up and God willing saving my back and my knees.
​
So I replaced it with another, deeper metal tub, same design, and lined with all the ash from the previous forge and some mud left over from digging postholes for a fence. This time, the only firebrick is in the very bottom - it's good stuff, but it tends to become dislodged easily while working, not helped by the round shape of the tub. And, given that summer just came roaring back with a vengeance, I soaked the lining with water (as an aside, if you're an adult who misses playing in the mud when you were a kid, just take up blacksmithing!) and have been letting it sit in the sun for the last few days. It still won't provide the space for working large pieces of metal, but any knives and hand tools I might like to make should be doable without too much cussing.
While waiting for the new forge to dry, I've also tried my hand at making charcoal. Usually when I give something new a go, it takes an attempt or three before I get it right. This time, though, I got it on the first try! It's pretty simple - just get a metal bucket with a lid, punch a 1/2" or so hole in the top of it, fill it with some smallish chunks of wood and set it in a roaring fire. Smoke, followed by jets of flame will start to shoot out of the hole, and after a couple hours, you have charcoal. Just remember to resist the urge to open the lid until the bucket's completely cooled, or else the air rushing in will cause your new charcoal to ignite.
It doesn't seem like it's any more economical than just buying lump charcoal, though, unless you're like me and had a tree fall over in a storm and knock the corner of the roof of your house last year, and thus have some extra wood lying around. Still, if you do have the wood to burn, it's a good use for it.
​
As always, feel free to reach out if you need help or just want to talk about making cool stuff. As Navio Occhialini says, "Four eyes are better than two!"
​
God bless all of you.
​
-Matt
