Prepper Boat Thread

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by Pete7

I would make coke first which is a 3 day process and then use the coke to get the heat necessary to heat steel. Your choice of steel might be limited but a nice piece of old leaf spring will probably do.

Pete

A few things making coke is a constant simple process of basicly baking coal on the prefery of the coal forge fire . But totally unnecessary.

Yes choices of hardenable steel may be limited . Spring steel ( 5160 carbon steel ) is a common and easily obtainable hardenable but mild will work just fine if it doesn't need to hold an edge .
This axe was made with mild steel and a small piece of lawn mower blade forge welded in to form the hardenable sharp edge . Took about 2 hours with my propane but could easily be done with a wood fire just use the inflation device for your tender to do the forced draft for welding temperatures.

[newhaul]

Came across this little video shows how to build a simple wood fired ( or coal) forge for free .

https://youtu.be/ciXBeWXUCzM

[owly]

It should be noted that originally iron was made using wood for a fuel, however that wood was coked.... though the result of the coking process on wood is charcoal, not coke. European forests were decimated in the steel industry before coal became the fuel of choice. With the abundance of scrap iron and steel left over from thousands of years of iron age, the materials are abundant without the need to smelt ore. Cupola technology for melting and pouring iron using a tapable vessel filled with alternating layers of coke, limestone, and scrap iron if fairly simple, in fact there are a number of annual iron pours around the country where the public is able to participate. The Herman, Mn Iron pour for example allows public observers and for a fee you can cast something... currently not operating presumably due to covid. This is a good way to get msc scrap gathered along the beaches and wherever to a form you can work with. Sand casting is fairly simple, and you can make channels to direct molten iron into various molds once the cupola is tapped.

Another interesting process is thermite, which consists of powdered aluminum combined with iron oxide (rust). Touch it off, and the aluminum burns using the oxygen from the iron oxide to sustain an intensely hot combustion leaving behind molten iron. This is how the railroad welds rail together.


Oddly, having been in love with steel for many years, fabricating it in various ways, I have never personally used a forge. I've always had plenty of torches to supply heat when I wanted to take steel to it's plastic state and shape it into complex shapes, and used a combination of heating, hammering, and welding to accomplish my objectives. There is little more satisfying to me than forming steel when it is in it's plastic shape where you can bend, stretch, shrink, etc..... fun stuff to work with. I learned welding using a torch in the 60's, later graduating to an arc welder, but never lost the love for the torch. I own an array of welders from a huge 425 amp Hobart with removable fine adjust that does AC and DC and Heliarc (what they now call TIG), to wire feeders, both integral ones and ones that run on a constant potential power supply, to a Cobramatic push pull, and tig welders (my favorite process with the hand torch and foot pedal amp control)


I can imagine the situation where I would be forced to resort to more primitive methods.......... but I don't think it's realistic.... at least not in my case.

[Cannasail]

Originally Posted by newhaul

Came across this little video shows how to build a simple wood fired ( or coal) forge for free .

https://youtu.be/ciXBeWXUCzM

Thank you very much for this and the info. It is greatly appreciated.

[Cannasail]

Originally Posted by owly

It should be noted that originally iron was made using wood for a fuel, however that wood was coked.... though the result of the coking process on wood is charcoal, not coke. European forests were decimated in the steel industry before coal became the fuel of choice. With the abundance of scrap iron and steel left over from thousands of years of iron age, the materials are abundant without the need to smelt ore. Cupola technology for melting and pouring iron using a tapable vessel filled with alternating layers of coke, limestone, and scrap iron if fairly simple, in fact there are a number of annual iron pours around the country where the public is able to participate. The Herman, Mn Iron pour for example allows public observers and for a fee you can cast something... currently not operating presumably due to covid. This is a good way to get msc scrap gathered along the beaches and wherever to a form you can work with. Sand casting is fairly simple, and you can make channels to direct molten iron into various molds once the cupola is tapped.

Another interesting process is thermite, which consists of powdered aluminum combined with iron oxide (rust). Touch it off, and the aluminum burns using the oxygen from the iron oxide to sustain an intensely hot combustion leaving behind molten iron. This is how the railroad welds rail together.


Oddly, having been in love with steel for many years, fabricating it in various ways, I have never personally used a forge. I've always had plenty of torches to supply heat when I wanted to take steel to it's plastic state and shape it into complex shapes, and used a combination of heating, hammering, and welding to accomplish my objectives. There is little more satisfying to me than forming steel when it is in it's plastic shape where you can bend, stretch, shrink, etc..... fun stuff to work with. I learned welding using a torch in the 60's, later graduating to an arc welder, but never lost the love for the torch. I own an array of welders from a huge 425 amp Hobart with removable fine adjust that does AC and DC and Heliarc (what they now call TIG), to wire feeders, both integral ones and ones that run on a constant potential power supply, to a Cobramatic push pull, and tig welders (my favorite process with the hand torch and foot pedal amp control)


I can imagine the situation where I would be forced to resort to more primitive methods.......... but I don't think it's realistic.... at least not in my case.

Thank you very much for your insight into this.I wish I could buy you and newhaul a coffee and pick both your brains for an hour or two.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by Cannasail

Thank you very much for your insight into this.I wish I could buy you and newhaul a coffee and pick both your brains for an hour or two.

Happy to any time just PM me your questions and email address .

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by owly

It should be noted that originally iron was made using wood for a fuel, however that wood was coked.... though the result of the coking process on wood is charcoal, not coke. European forests were decimated in the steel industry before coal became the fuel of choice. With the abundance of scrap iron and steel left over from thousands of years of iron age, the materials are abundant without the need to smelt ore. Cupola technology for melting and pouring iron using a tapable vessel filled with alternating layers of coke, limestone, and scrap iron if fairly simple, in fact there are a number of annual iron pours around the country where the public is able to participate. The Herman, Mn Iron pour for example allows public observers and for a fee you can cast something... currently not operating presumably due to covid. This is a good way to get msc scrap gathered along the beaches and wherever to a form you can work with. Sand casting is fairly simple, and you can make channels to direct molten iron into various molds once the cupola is tapped.

Another interesting process is thermite, which consists of powdered aluminum combined with iron oxide (rust). Touch it off, and the aluminum burns using the oxygen from the iron oxide to sustain an intensely hot combustion leaving behind molten iron. This is how the railroad welds rail together.


Oddly, having been in love with steel for many years, fabricating it in various ways, I have never personally used a forge. I've always had plenty of torches to supply heat when I wanted to take steel to it's plastic state and shape it into complex shapes, and used a combination of heating, hammering, and welding to accomplish my objectives. There is little more satisfying to me than forming steel when it is in it's plastic shape where you can bend, stretch, shrink, etc..... fun stuff to work with. I learned welding using a torch in the 60's, later graduating to an arc welder, but never lost the love for the torch. I own an array of welders from a huge 425 amp Hobart with removable fine adjust that does AC and DC and Heliarc (what they now call TIG), to wire feeders, both integral ones and ones that run on a constant potential power supply, to a Cobramatic push pull, and tig welders (my favorite process with the hand torch and foot pedal amp control)


I can imagine the situation where I would be forced to resort to more primitive methods.......... but I don't think it's realistic.... at least not in my case.

Personally I prefer either the bloom method or better for controlling metallurgy the crucible method