Concentrating heat?

[YT2095]

Or you could get an old 1m dia sat dish and foil coat it, same thing

[calbiterol]

The needed temperature would max out at about 1400 celcius, about where steel becomes white-hot (needed for welding, if neccessary). Normal operation would be around 1100 celcius.

[Conceptual]

How about the ancient art of resistive heating. Just kidding. Resistive heating can be dangerous. An induction coil might work. A coil of copper tubing with water flowing inside and electricity at both ends of the copper. Place the sword in the coil when you need rapid heating. Power down when it gets white hot. The coil stays cool, only what is inside the coil gets hot. This could be also be dangerous. Stick to field tested low tech, it does the job with stuff you can improvise around the house. I believe the coke or charcoal adds carbon to the steel. Air helps to control the ratio.

[Rebiu]

I need a furnace (of sorts) that is capable of heating iron' date=' and eventually steel, to red-hot temperatures. I would prefer this to work in conventional means, and not involve the use of gas. In addition, it would be a definite plus if it was of minimal size, which leads me to my question:

[indent']Is there any way that I can concentrate the heat and increase the resulting temperature of the interior of a heating chamber? I know adding a permanent bellows (basically, a continual fan blowing up from underneath the heating chamber) is an option, but is there anything else?

[/indent] If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

 

Hopefully that wasn't too vague. Thanks in advance,

Calbit

A charcoal fired forge is highly feasible.

 

To concentrate the heat you want you must reduce the sources of heat loss.

 

Heat is lost radiantly. The forge must allow access for you part and yet minimize heat loss. I believe traditional forges put new fuel on top to insulate and the air is pumped in from the bottom. You could add a lid that not only closes while you are working the piece but also will close on the piece when it is in the forge.

 

I believe they conserved fuel by letting the coals naturally aspire until they place their piece in them at which time they would pump a bellows with their free hand. I you use a blower you may want a shutoff valve to facilitate this same kind of fuel conservation.

 

If you should have trouble getting your forge hot enough you could preheat you incoming air. This is the real beauty of solid fuel. You can heat the incoming air as hot as you like if you try that with a gas or liquid fed fire you will get a series of inefficient explosions rather than a continuous burn. If you make a chimney for the forge you could use the heat of you exhaust gasses to heat you incoming air. This is known as recuperation.

 

 

 

 

Here is an interesting link regarding charcoal fired forges

http://www.moosecreekforge.com/hints.html

 

Building a forge from scrap

http://www.survival.com/forge.htm

 

Some information on making your own refractory materials from more common components

http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/refractories.html

[Rebiu]

An idea just hit me - would using hydrogen as a fuel be practical? It's relatively easy to obtain and burns at very, very high temps... Or would that be too dangerous?

Hydrogen is very difficult to store efficiently. How would you easily obtain hydrogen?

[lightwave]

If your purpose is to make swords and other edged weapons then why not just buy a commercial forge for this. You'd really be wasting an awful lot of time in re-inventing the forge. It's been done, done, done.

 

After you've bought your commercial forge then take a trip to Japan, they brought knife edge manufacture to it's limit 100 years ago. You won't get an apprenticeship with one of the sword makers (thousands are in that queue) but they might give you a weeks tuition for a cheap $2000.

 

There's loads of edged weapons makers around the world. Most of them produce junk. The superior makers charge whatever they like for their swords/knives.

 

Re-enactors used to make thier own armor but lots now are buying it. There's a giant market out there for armor, weapons, clothing. Some people even make thier own cannons for re-enactments.

[insane_alien]

i hhink the whole point is the self satisfaction of having built something for your self. not just to make super cool pointy weapons.

[YT2095]

Some people even make thier own cannons for re-enactments.

OR make them just for the "Jazz" of it, as I think this forge idea is too, any end result of a blade or even a paperweight is just a Bonus