Adventures in Blacksmithing - A Failure

So I've been thinking about getting into blacksmithing. My ultimate goal is to forge a damascus steel knife, but one step at a time.

A coal forge is the traditional blacksmiths fire. I figured I'd start there, and a bought 50 pounds of coal before I even had the forge. Probably not the best idea, but I hate it when I finish building something, and then have to wait for more materials before I can actually use it. 

Word of Warning, this is a chronicle of failure. This whole idea was a complete flop, but I learned some things. At the end of this I'll talk about what I'm going to do better. 

While perusing the store looking for a fire pot, I saw this metal pail. It was the best I could find, so I bought it. A better firepot would be welded out of thicker steel, or made from a brake drum. But Neither of those are options yet. But someday soon!

I made the tuyere from some pipe fittings, and capped the bottom so the ashes could be cleared.

 

I filled the inside of the pail with kaowool and covered it in satanite. Leaving the center cleared for the airway. 

Most coal forges that I've seen have some sort of diffuser for the air. I drilled some holes in a sheet of steel that I'll place on top of the forge. This should hold the coal and provide some scattering of the air.

Now here's the part where I talk about the total failure this project was. Not every project is going to be a success, but you hope that you learn something from the experience. Which I did :)

First of all, the coal was a lot more difficult to ignite than I thought it would be. Turns out, that it's  harder to light then charcoal. You've gotta pile the charcoal around a fire with enough substance to turn the charcoal into coke. And then ignite the coke. This requires a firepot that allows you to create a chimney, which mine did not. It wasn't deep enough, and because it was so small, there wasn't enough room to pile coal all around.

You also want the existing fire to convert the surrounding coal into coke. And for that you've gotta have the "hearth". That's the flat table top surrounding the fire pot where you store extra coal, and push it closer to the fire to began its transformation into coke.

Basically, the traditional format for a coal forge is just about perfect.