"Backyard Blacksmithing" pounding iron on the forge this evening!

That looks awesome.

 

Awesome can't wait! Also I have a good list of blacksmith books titles that I can send you pictures of for your wife if she's interested. Lots of good reads and information!

By the way is this the same Steven that I went out to dinner with last Tuesday? It probably is I am just checking.

 

Very nice! It’s a great match to the look of the stove. Quality work there.

 

Yep! We had a great time!

 

That's what I thought, hahaha I just wanted to be sure! It was a good time and it was great to finally meet you and your wife. I am that you joined up, this is a great place and a lot of good guy's on here!

Maybe we'll meet again at a GTG. If you come to a GTG you'll have to bring your wife along.

 

I was wondering what your purpose was in having a screen. Now I get it. You have Rug Rats and want to have a barrier to keep them from the stove! Nice job on the screen and an excellent idea!

 

I actually took the stove door and traced it on a board! Then figured my width I was going for and scribed off the door tracing. It worked pretty good.

 

Yeah the rug rat stopper! Exactly what it’s for. We had a “fence” looking thing that was on the floor, but after I put the hardwood in a little bit ago I didn’t want to screw it back down into the new maple.

 

Caned Otto forge. Saw this sitting outside a barn and stopped and asked about it. What’s it worth?

 

Nice find!!
If it’s all in working order and no cracks, in and around the fire pot especially around here it would bring $500 and up

 

Fire pot has some pits in it but no cracks. Pretty cool piece. The old guy said his grandfather bought it new. He tore down old barn and built new pole building and didn’t want it any more. It has a electric Rheostat controlled fan on it but I got the original hand crank blower also. He said it originally was mounted to a bracket off the side of the forge, but he didn’t have the bracket.

 

Definitely a nice fine Slocum ! Clean it up real good with a grinder and a wire wheel paint it with some high temp paint and above all don't forget to clay your forge! If not and if you just use it as is the high heat can cause it to crack!

After you apply the fire clay you have to fire it a few times to get all of the moisture out of it. The clay will crack. Just mix up some more and keep firing till you see no more cracks.

 

That is an enviable find! I guess the anvil was already long gone?

 

[QUOTE="blacksmith, and above all don't forget to clay your forge! [/QUOTE]
I think I understand what this will accomplish, but need some further "splainin".

 

The clay is like lining a stove with firebricks.

 

So it's not like a crack filler and applied in a layer over the whole " bowl"?
How thick?

 

The guy still had it but wouldn’t part with it.

 

No, it's more like insulation to dissipate and spread the intense heat. Otherwise you risk burning out or cracking the cast iron. I believe you want a good 1.5 - 2 inches thick. I've seen it done with sand to but clay sounds better.

 

Never knew about lining it with clay. Had sand in my cast iron forge bed. (all we had at that time). Later on lined it with firebrick but that really limited the amount of coal, but wasn't beating thick steel.

 

I think I understand what this will accomplish, but need some further "splainin". [/QUOTE]

To further explain Iam sorry about that. My forge is pretty much the same setup as Slocum .
What I did with mine was, after I wire wheeled the whole thing painted it with black high temp paint.

Went to my local brick yard and got 1 1/2" thick fire bricks and a bag of fire clay (dry powder mix in the bag).

Mixed up a batch (pretty sticky and thick) layed down about an 1" thick coating over the whole forge.

Set the fire bricks into my layer, don't push them in too hard. Cutting out a nice opening where the actual fire will be.

I then filled in all the joints with more clay and built up around the opening where the clinker breaker/ air and waste pipe is at the center of the pot.

Gave it a couple of hard firings and filled in the cracks where the clay was shrinking and separating.

This is how I did mine not sure if this is the way that you are supposed to do it or not but I wanted the best insulating quality combined with a tough surface. I have had no problems with mine at all. This way will take a little bit of time but it's worth it!

I hope that I did a good job of explaining this?Please let me know if I didn't!

When I get some time if need be I can snap some pictures of my forge if you like.