Hi I’ve recently joined this forum. I’ve been blacksmithing for off and on probably 4 years now. I use both coal and propane but my propane forge is currently not functional. I love that this forum is here I look forward to learning with everyone to better this skill.
Hey nghtmr901! Welcome!
If you’re running into problems with the propane forge let me know, I’d be happy to help. I’ve made quite a few before.
Looking forward to seeing what you’re making!
The burner is fine. Right now it’s the refractory I used a mixture of plaster of Paris and sand half and half with water. Now that worked fine for about a month then I started to notice it was crumbling. Now it’s pretty much all crumbled away. I need a better refractory. For cheap cause I do not have that much money to spend on that.
Hey everyone, I’m very new to this craft, so new I have not even made my own forge yet but I plan to. One thing I can’t figure out though and may seem like a dumb question to those with more experience, but what is the purpose of using baking soda on the metal while forging? Also I’ve seen videos where borax was used, are they similar with what they do? And one more question, what type of oil is used for quenching? Or doesn’t it really matter?
The borax is used as a flux to help with forge welding. Also the type of oil I don’t think matters old used oil will stink a lot more than new oil I have heard of guys using vegetable oil. I personally don’t know what is better
Welcome to the forum, nghtmr901! Cheers! 