I
Already Own a Coal Forge, Why Should I Switch to
Gas?
- or -
I am just starting out. Which kind of forge should I build?
- or -
Should I buy or build my new gas forge?
I am asked these
questions
so often that I have decided to prepare a separate web page just to
answer
them. Now to start out let me say that I was a coal forge smith for
many
years. I have four coal forges, two rivet
forges,
a full sized Buffalo #660 shop
forge, shown here the day I brought it home, and a large home
made expandable tuyere coal forge
that has served me well over the years. My big home made forge has
almost any feature
you could wish for in a forge, an expandable tuyere to change fires
from
a 6" diameter to as long as 24", separate electric and hand cranked
blowers,
built in crane, a built in hood with 12' chimney, is easily portable,
can
handle iron up to several hundred pounds in weight or in long sections,
and has its own post vise! So why would I want to switch to a propane
fired
gas forge if I have a coal forge with all these capabilities? Hopefully
the
following will answer this question, as well as any others you may
have.
One last comment before I start into this discussion, when I say "gas
forge"
I will be using that term generically to include both propane and
natural
gas. I will make a few comparisons between these two options further on
in
this document also.
I was totally satisfied
with using coal until I visited a blacksmith friend of mine in Oregon
one
summer a number of years ago. He had built a crude but very effective
little
gas forge that was fired with an equally crude but equally effective
propane
burner, and the burner was made all of off the shelf plumbing fittings!
I
was astounded at the temperatures the forge could reach, and the
efficiency
of the little 3/4" burner. I was totally sold on the little forge when
he
performed several basket welds, and did it much more easily than I
could
in my coal forge. I copied down his burner design, and that started the
long
road that eventually led to the various Web pages, and various forge
and
burner designs, you see here on my site. I will include a URL list at
the
bottom for most of my major web pages relating to blacksmithing or
foundry
work. From these pages you will be able to link to all the peripheral
pages
I have, such as the one you are presently reading.
I
have to include one reason to use gas that is probably the most
compelling one, your health. One day after a full weekend of smithing
work, using one of my open pan forges, I awoke with a very violent
shaking of my muscles in my arms and throughout my body. I went to the
doctor of course, and after a lot of testing and discussion they
determined I was suffering from nerve poisoning due to breathing too
much coal smoke. There are some bad things in coal smoke, especially
various sulfur compounds, that can attack your central nervous system,
as it had done to mine. I was informed that if I continued to breath
coal smoke I would end up with permanent and non reversible nerve
damage! Fortunately this happened at the same time that I was becoming
familiar with the magic of propane forges. Following that experience I
have fired up my coal forges no more than three times, when I had to
heat iron that was too large or angular to fit in my propane forge.
BTW, there is a solution to that inherent problem, which most propane
forge possess, and the solution is the "Clamshell" forge design, which
I have information elsewhere on my site about. I
have a Zip file
of information about the Clamshell that you may download
if interested. Ralph Sproul provided me with some of the images in the
Zip file, as well as a copy of his very well done Clamshell forge
plans. I highly recommend you contact Ralph
if you are interested in this forge design. Nahum Hersom provided me
with information that is in the file too.
It is a well known fact that no forge design can do everything, but the
Clamshell is probably the closest to being a "do-all" forge design as
exists.
Probably the most asked
question, and the least important one, regards economy of gas verses
coal.
Economy can be gaged in a variety of ways. If you wish to compare only
the
cost per BTU delivered to the iron you are working on, then the various
burners
on my pages will win hands down every time. Blacksmithing coal is
becoming more difficult
to obtain, with ever rising prices, but this is to some degree a
function
of where you live. Also, coal of blacksmithing quality is becoming very
difficult to obtain because of various mine closings due mostly to
increasing
Federal regulation that coal mines must comply with, and also
because most of the high quality coal comes from relatively small mines
that
are finding it tougher to compete with the larger mining operations.
Where
I live, in the mountains of central Idaho, I have to drive 400 miles to
Portland Oregon to purchase
my coal. Granted, I take my trailer, and combine these trips with
visits
to relatives and friends in Portland and the Willamette Valley, but it
is
still costly to haul 800-1000 pounds back to Boise and on up to wher I
now live, and the price of the
coal in Portland is not cheap to begin with.
To really evaluate the
economy of propane to coal you have to look at a lot more than just raw
fuel
cost. Gas forges, either propane or natural gas, allow constant
observation
of the work during the heat. Also, they can't burn the iron,
as coal
will so easily do the moment you look away for some reason. Gas forges
do
scale the iron, but not as badly as coal if the forge is properly built
and adjusted, and gas will make
all your work cleaner and speedier. Forge welding in a gas forge is
much
easier for the beginner, but not greatly different for the accomplished
coal
smith. With a gas forge you can start working instantly, the moment you
light
off the forge. You do not even need to wait for the forge to warm up to
working temperature. With
a coal forge you will spend a significant amount of time tending the
fire
and getting it ready for the days work. I would like to refer you to an
e-mail I
recently received
from a fellow regarding his conversion to gas. Dan states very clearly
that
with gas he now spends his time forging instead of tending the fire.
Dan
is a new smith, and most certainly a smith with long experience will
handle
a coal forge with much greater expertise than someone new to
blacksmithing,
but Dan's comment "I would spend more time trying to manage my fire
than
I did hammering." is still valid to some degree even for the expert.
The real bottom line
that you should look at when comparing coal to gas IS
the bottom line.
With a gas forge you will be
able to produce more forged items per
hour spent at the forge, no two ways about it. Also, for the non expert
smith,
and that includes almost all of us, his level of ability, his apparent
skill
level, will increase with the gas forge due to the comparative ease it
provides when performing many of the different blacksmithing
techniques, especially
forge welding. Now, if you are starting into blacksmithing because of
the
mystique of the burning coal, and its connection to the smith and
smithy
of long ago, then perhaps these comments don't apply to you. If you
want
to play with the fire and smell the coal smoke, then by all means buy
or build
yourself a coal forge. I have ample coal forge designs linked on my
Design
page for you to explore. You can be hammering iron at the end of
one weekend, or even one day, by building a coal forge, while a
properly
designed and constructed gas forge and burner will almost certainly
take
longer than that to complete, of that there is also little doubt.
One interesting benefit
of building a gas forge yourself, verses buying one, is that you can
easily
build a far superior forge to any commercially produced gas forge on
the
market. This will not only provide you the pride of ownership of a
superior
tool that you built yourself, but it also sets you up as a
knowledgeable
technician to repair or modify your forge as needed. Very few guys who
have spent $1000+ on a commercial gas forge will want to cut into it to
make
modifications, but you will not feel in the least restrained from doing
so on
your own home built forge if you suddenly happen upon an improvement
that
will make your forge function better for you.
Another factor to
be
considered, and perhaps the one that may be the most important for many
new
blacksmiths, is the user friendly nature of gas where your neighbors
are
concerned. Unless your neighbors are a lot different than mine when I
first started out, they will
not appreciate the acrid coal smoke of "start-up" drifting in through
their
open windows on a warm Saturday morning. I can easily start up my coal
forge
with almost no smoke being produced, but I have been at it for many
years, and there is still the ever present coal smke smell even without
visible smoke.
It may take you quite a while to master your fire, and I would say that
it
almost certainly will smoke heavily in the beginning. With coal, all
your neighbors will be alerted to the
fact that your smithy has started operating, by the tell-tail column of
smoke
above your forge, and in some locations that can bring you a visit from
the
authorities in short order. With a properly
designed burner
and gas
forge, the neighbors will not even know you are firing up for a day's
work
at the anvil. The only thing you will have to overcome then is the
noise
you inflict upon them, and hammering on hot iron isn't nearly as noisy
as you may think. Usually arguments to your noise, if there are any,
can be overcome with
the occasional gift of a piece of your forge work to the cranky
neighbor
who is giving you trouble. Noise is less of an issue than coal smoke
for
most people.
Although I have covered
this elsewhere in my forge pages, I will mention it here too. Many guys
have
the mistaken idea that gas forges
can't forge weld,
even some very experienced smiths believe this. The link is to an
e-mail which points this out clearly toward the bottom of the document.
In
fact, quite the opposite is the case. Gas forges that are properly
designed will very easily forge weld
if they are equipped with a properly designed burner, and enough
burners,
or big enough burners, for the volume of the forge chamber. I have a
series of burners posted to my design page that are so hot that you
have
to take protective measures to prevent flash burn from the light
emitted
from the forge chamber! Please see the safety
warning at the top of the Mongo Burner section.
These burners must
be used with great care, but the standard work-horse burners I have
posted,
the "Reil & EZ
Burners," do not present
this hazard unless used at very high gas pressures, and they can forge
weld and easily melt cast iron.
I would like to
make
a few comparisons between propane and natural gas fired forges. I admit
that
these comparisons do not hold for all forges of either type, but some
generalities can be made. Because natural gas is obtainable for most
people
only at very low pressures, 4-6 ounces, naturally aspirated Venturi
burners,
such as found on my pages, are not an option. Natural gas burners
almost
always need blowers. I was fortunate when I lived in Boise because I
had access to a 10 psi tap
off my natural gas line, and the work of setting it up for use was all
borne
by the gas company. I only had to provide a regulator for the gas line.
Most people are not so fortunate. Blown natural gas forges tend to be
very
"blowy" and have a very pronounced "dragon's breath." This blast of hot
gases
coming out the front of the forge can be very uncomfortable to work
around.
Some smiths attempt a fix by mounting an additional blower below the
forge
opening pointing straight up to blow the dragon's breath upwards and
away
from the smith. Also, many natural gas forges are poorly tuned and
provide
an oxygen rich atmosphere in the chamber, causing excessive oxidation
scale
to form on the iron. This however is not a fault of the forge but of
the
smith using it. Due to the blower they also tend to be very noisy.
Also,
but not always, they tend to run at lower temperatures than a propane
forge,
although forge welding is well within the range of a natural gas forge.
I
have a friend who does all his Damascus welding in his natural gas
forge,
one I sold him a number of years ago. Lastly, and on the positive side,
natural
gas is a less expensive fuel to fire your forge with, and you do not
need
to go refill tanks periodically, but its also not portable.
Propane forges tend
to run hotter than natural gas forges due to the difference in energy
content
per cubic foot of the respective fuels. Propane forges fitted with
naturally
aspirated burners are very portable because no electric blowers are
required.
They have a lower total gas volume entering the forge chamber, so the
dragon's
breath is reduced or eliminated almost all together. If adjusted
properly,
and equipped with a choke
as shown on my
Design page, propane forges can run with atmospheres that almost
totally
eliminate scaling of the iron, but well regulated natural gas forges
can
perform equally as well. I consider both propane and natural gas to be
very
good fuels for gas forges, but they must be selected with a full
knowledge
of the advantages and disadvantages associated with each fuel,
otherwise
you may be in for a disappointment.
The initial cost of
forge construction may be a factor for some people. Although you will
quickly
be repaid all your additional expenses involved with building a gas
forge,
verses a coal forge, through fuel and time savings, you may still
desire the
cheapest way possible to start blacksmithing, and coal is the winner,
hands
down. You can start with nothing more than an old truck brake drum, or
old
BBQ pan, and an old hair-dryer, and be forging before the day is out,
even using high sulfur "junk" coal. Gas
forges can't compete with that. However, the savings realized in fuel
costs,
and the other less tangible benefits, makes the gas forge the clear
winner
of this argument in the long run. I can think of only two reasons to
build
a coal forge; to play with the fire, and smell the smoke! Most
certainly
I started that way in 1958. The attraction and mystique of the blown
coal
fire is undeniable, and I hope that facet of blacksmithing is
never
forgotten. It is our heritage as blacksmiths, and that connection
should
always be in the back of the mind of any real blacksmith, no matter
what
fuel he is using.
I
have
covered only a few of the benefits of using gas to forge with. Most
certainly,
one is the pleasure you will derive each time you fire up your forge,
and
it responds with that familiar low roar as it turns a bright
orange-yellow
inside. You will take pride in knowing that you have a forge as fine as
any
you can buy, better in fact, and you built it all yourself. If you
want,
you can even equip it with push button start. I hope you will use the
information
on my pages to select and build a forge and burner system that will
serve
you well for many years into the future. Here are some URL links to a
few
of my resources. I hope that this page may have helped you in your
decision
as to which type of forge to start with. If you really become involved
with hammering
iron you will soon be the proud owner of a number of forges of both
types.
:-)
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Forge
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Page By: Ron Reil
©Golden Age Forge
5 Mar 06
