After Casting	Baffle Assembly	Blower End	Baffle Installed	Blower Assembly

Based on a design by "Doc" Price of England, I built this forge for heat treating swords. It is made using Kast-O-Lite 19 L Plus, castable refractory from Harbison-Walker, contact Mac Harper. Mac can get all the refractory products we use from Satanite to Inswool.

The shell is a 12"x12"x48" steel box and I used a 6" cardboard sauna tube for the internal form. The castable was mixed and poured and after it had set up, I drilled 3/16ths inch holes every two inches down the length of the box into the fire chamber so that the holes came in at a tangent to the wall.

 A baffle was built by cutting steel tubing at an angle tapering from one end to the other. I added another section of tubing at right angles to the long member for the air supply to mount. I also added two internal air baffles to create turbulent mixing of the air/propane and to provide for even distribution to the burner holes.

The burner consists of a small blower with propane fed in just below the blower off a low pressure regulator, 1/2 lb. It took quite a bit of time to dry out the castable, but once it had dried the forge burns evenly over its entire length. I put sand in the bottom of the forge so that I could bury the point while heating and also to prop the blade up. The sand is very useful for diverting the flame from direct contact with the blade and for covering areas of the blade while heating.

Don Fogg Custom Knives
Copyright © 1997 Don Fogg Custom Knives. All rights reserved.
Revised: October 18, 2003.