Tools/forge/induction

Describe the basic forging, shaping, drawing out, bending

General Safety

Clothing, overalls best, nothing flammable, avoid synthetics

Heavy boots, toe-capped preferred

Goggles AT ALL TIMES WHILE FORGE IS LIT

Welding gloves

Ear protection while hammering

Good air circulation, monoxide hazard and detectors

Clearing the area around the forge of all flammables

Everyone knows how to use fire extinguishers?

In case of fire, TURN GAS OFF!

What types of extinguisher to use on what sort of fire

We cannot extinguish metal fires, use the vermiculite to smother

NEVER use an extinguisher on the forge it's self, it has nothing flammable anyway

Hazards of the oil for quenching

Hazards of metals high in nickel, chrome, cadmium etc, and protection needed

Arc-eye hazards of welding

How steels behave and heat treatments

Use the diagram to explain things

The states the steel can be in, what is critical temperature and why it matters.

               Form above critical

 Plannish under critical

       Using a magnet to test for critical, but learn to use colour

How different types have different hot-hardnesses

Stainless needs a lot more heat

Damascus needs even more

Cover annealing, hardening, normalizing

       Effects of under-heating and over-heating – Stress cracks, decarburization, crumbling

       Effects of oxidizing and reducing flames – Scale, Temperature, Decarburization

Welding onto the dop rods

 Emphasise use a LOT of weld material

Need to normalize the welds

They are GOING to break, what to do when they do

 Watch for starting of cracks

 DO NOT TRY TO CATCH THE HOT METAL

 Pick it up IMMEDIATELY with grips, place onto hot-safe surface

Lighting the forge

Describe the forge and it's parts

       How the tunnel can be opened longer for bigger objects

Never use brick choke and rear door at the same time

Check it over for damage

Vacuum out tunnel – clean before use, not after

Plug it in!

Checking the gas & air valve positions are closed

Start the blower

Let a little air into the forge

Cover the dramatic differences in gas and air settings

Turning on gas at the bottle and burners

Opening the main gas valve and using the lighter to get it lit

Adjusting the gas and air valves to get a flame the right size and slightly reducing

Demonstrate high/low, oxidizing/reducing, show what they look like

       Large flames are more stable, small flames may result in burner over-heat, check this often

       Demonstrate high/low flames

Starting up the second burner if you have a need to for a long object

Normalizing

Why we need to normalize

What it does

Proper procedure

What happens if we're not hot enough, or too hot!

Flattening out the rod

Heating to a suitable colour, testing with magnet if you need to

 Just getting the feel of beating on the metal, try both hammers, see what it's like

Don't touch metal to anvil till you're ready to strike

Correct any error immediately, don't let them grow

Consider the shape we're working towards

The need to come to both dimensions at once and not over-work in one direction

We can't fix over-thinning

REMEMBER TO CORRECT ERRORS AT ONCE

Looking at the metal as it cools, seeing what needs to change

Drawing out using small hammers, large hammer on step, large hammer on side, edge of large hammer

Cycling draw out and flatten

Keep thinning, flattening, drawing out till target shape

Try to get the surface nice, so we can do less grinding

Normalizing

Repeat the normalization cycle

Furnace cooling as an option for normalization but not annealing

Shut down the forge

Air off – Gas off – Air on

Leaving the air running to cool the forge if needed

The forge may stay hot enough to start fires for up to 2 hours

Marking out the area of "hot things" when leaving

Normalize and Anneal

This is the last chance to smooth out any gross surface defects or geometry errors

Using a little less heat than before as we're not trying to cause bulk movements

Planishing using the smaller hammers to smooth things as best we can

Normalize for at least 2 cycles and maybe more

Fix geometry before cycles

Using the vermiculite to slow down cooling to achieve maximum softening or furnace cool

Shutting down the forge

As before for shut-down

Letting the forge cool down enough before putting it away

Hand-in-tunnel test

Don’t try to clean inside the tunnel, put it away dirty

Watching out for condensation dripping off the gas bottle

Getting the blades out of the vermiculite and cleaning up.