Building a New Forge Is Going to Kill Me

10/27/2026

Refractory. What does it mean? I don't exactly know. I have gone through a few iterations of this little forge, starting with the steel coffee can lined with plaster of paris. The issue with it is, aside from the size, that POP has chemically bonded water. What this means is that, by getting the forge hot enough for my steel, heat decomposes the POP. This wastes heat, releases water vapor, and causes the coating to spall and crumble.

I attempted a few more versions with bricks, bentonite clay and bricks, and now i'm trying with just regular potter's clay. It's lead me down such! a rabbithole of material science research.

I've Been Blacksmithing Lately

9/30/2026

I started my knife of course. That is at a standstill at the moment due to limitations of my little makeshift forge. It's not deep enough. But I have a few more projects in the works, including some ornate hairpins. I'm quite excited for those. I also ordered a cheap new anvil. It's probably an objectively bad anvil, but it'll be better then the 2cm^2 soft steel anvil on the back of my bench vise. In addition to the pins and knife, I'll be working on some new bending and cutting tools(hot chisel and bending fork) but I assume that the technical projects will be of little interest to others.

*EDIT Miranda has informed me that there is in fact interest in the technical projects. Here is some info on bending forks. These are both attachments that fit into an anvil's ''hardy hole''. The hardy hole acts as a third hand, holding a tool while you hold the workpiece and your hammer. I've found myself often using my bench vise to hold things for me because I was limited by my anatomy(having only two hands) and it is a poor substitute for an anvil's tool hole.