Ozbow

Gday guys, while waiting for some more bow material to arrive I have been nocking up some knife blades which are going to need to be heat treated soon, so I decided to whack a coal forge together with some gear I had laying around and a cheap blower. I thought I would share the process with some pics for all to see on here. Hope you enjoy.
Cheers Sean.

Started with an old gas bottle, and cut as shown in the first pictures.




Then I had a 600mm length of 50mm x 3mm wall black steel pipe which I prepared for the tweer by welding a plug on one end and drilling a series of 3/8" holes in as shown in the pictures below.


wow that's a nice finger,



I cleaned up the end of the pipe so it would slide in the smaller hole cut in the back of the gas bottle and seem welded at the rear as shown here.



I also added a butterfly valve made from some 1.6mm steel and a bolt, to control the airflow from the blower, and in between the blower and the butterfly I drilled a 3/8" bypass hole so the blower isn't overloaded with backpressure when the valve is fully closed, and a couple of strategically placed tech screws for the blower to twist lock onto.




a lever to control the valve, which is connected to a rod which runs to the front of the unit through two nuts welded to the bottom of the forge, and airflow is now controlled from the working point of the forge, as shown here,





all mounted up on a cut down table frame I had handy,




I purchased two refractory/ fire bricks from the local hardware shop which fitted perfectly to make the trench to concentrate the coke/ coal over the tweer, threw in some bbq coal and lit her up,



and with the butterfly open there is no stopping it,



very happy with the results so far, and thanks for looking.
Cheers Sean.

Great build along , Sean! Few years ago would have been right into building one myself, but now too much on and not enough time! Congrats on a great result.

thanks Bob, got it really crackin last night,



treated a few skinners,



and in the oven for tempering,



these were supposed to be cleaned up and polished today, but I have been rolling around in bed with a migraine all day, as far as time goes Bob, as a stay at home dad of a little fella I have plenty and utilising it all before I go back to work, with three children it was my turn with the little fella also gives the missus a chance to finish her nursing.
Cheers Sean.

Great build-a-long Sean. Thanks.

Jeff

Thanks Jeff I really enjoy this site and like to contribute to it as much as possible, though not much.
got one of the skinners finished with the leftover bubinga from the bow, I'll put up a coupe more pics later,
cheers Sean.

It looks great! You have done an excellent job.

I have been quiet on the site of late myself as we were away on a months holiday.

Jeff

Stickbow Hunter wrote:It looks great! You have done an excellent job.

I have been quiet on the site of late myself as we were away on a months holiday.

Jeff

Thanks Jeff, holidays hey, like my lams. hope you had a good trip.

Knife looks great Sean. What's the steel? I made a few out if a high carbon tool steel a long time ago . It was O1, from memory. Also did one with 154 CM stainless, but never got around to getting it tempered as , again from memory i believe it had a very long 'soak' time in the tempering process. I did the ones with the O1 myself though.

Thanks Bob, this is 1084 carbon blade steel, one of the easier ones to heat treat which was my main reason for using it,
Overall length = 205mm
blade = 105mm x 3mm thick
handle = 100mm

another one finished






Cheers Sean

They're turning out great alright mate.

Jeff

Great build-along, Thanks. And so simple when you see it done.
Also good job on the knives.
Cheers Dan

Thanks Dan, the charcoal forges are pretty straight forward and fairly simple to use as long as you have the airflow adjustment.
Cheers Sean.

Finished this one today, Bocote scales on red phenolic spacers,






Cheers Sean.

Stickbow Hunter wrote:They're turning out great alright mate.

Jeff

Cheers Jeff, gotta keep busy while waiting for parcels.

Top work there mate!!

I love the simplicity of your forge, but your choice of knife designs are very good and practical.

Cheers Hazard, very rewarding feeling making them yourself and having people appreciate them.

Thanks for the build along Goatchaser. I've been wanting to build a forge for a while. I might give this a go. Looks fairly straight forward.

Very nice knives. I've been looking at lots of stuff on the net lately and thinking about making a few. I enquired about getting some 440C and it's difficult, need to get a metre of round bar from Sydney and then have it forged flat, not cheap and a bit of an exercise. Where did you source your 1085?

And for the tempering, are you just using a standard oven to get them up to temp? I was also looking at getting mine heat treated by someone else, again more cost.

Ta, Indie.

Great build along Sean. The knives look great too, well done mate.

Cheers... Rod