MY FIRST FORGE

I built this forge from junk in 1969 and these photos were taken in 1976 just before I dissasembled it for parts to build another forge. I did my first forging using this contraption and a piece of steel plate laying on the ground for an anvil. What I knew of blacksmithing then came from the books of Eric Sloane, primarily "A Museum of Early American Tools".

The parts of this forge each had a history. The bent Ford rim used for the fire pot came of a friend's station wagon that got taken out joy riding one night, run over a curb and into an oak tree. The Austin-Healy Sprite MK II wheel base was also bent by the same friend. Various straps and brackets were made from aluminium scavagened from the body of a rare Austin-Healy 100-4, again, from a project of the same friend. The conduit body switch box and builder's angle came from my dad's scrap pile and the big blower off the coal furnace that had just been replaced in our old Victorian home. The air control handle is my first forging, made from a RR spike.

The only purchased items were the three 1/2" x 36" pipe "legs" and the elbows used at the top. The whole thing was built with a small electric drill, a 3/4" hot punch a cold chisel and a hammer. The blast handle was forged from a rail road spike and is the only piece I have left! The 1/3 HP blower was way to much! You could blast the entire fire out of the pot with the butterfly valve wide open!

The blower from this forge was used to build a new forge that was poorly designed and too small. It in turn was replaced by the forge in my portable shop trailer.