Lightweight forge

[john k]

I took my blacksmith setup to a hammer in recently.   When set up I realized there was a twin to my forge!   Mine is on the left,  his has coal in it, we had them both hot pretty soon.  This used to be a pretty common little forge, imagine most of them rusted away on the iron pile.   According to a member it was in a 1930s Sears&Roebuck catalog along with a basic smithing set for around $30.   Unlike most forges  I can lift this right over the side of the pickup.  The Buffalo blower is all stamped, even the gears, works well actually.   Where did I get it?  Out of the barn, my father bought it to use, at auction in the 1950s. 

[Mike H]

John: That is a good looking rig you have there.
I had not heard the term "hammer in" before.
There have been times in the last couple years
when I wish there was a smith round here.

[Twilight Fenrir]

John: That is a good looking rig you have there.
I had not heard the term "hammer in" before.
There have been times in the last couple years
when I wish there was a smith round here.

You might be surprised... Since I started smithing, I discovered damn near everyone and their uncle is doing it XD I live in the middle of nowhere, Minnesota and there are still 3 metalsmith clubs within easy driving distance...

[leg17]

Probably a Farrier's forge.
Easier to transport from ranch to farm.

[oldgoaly]

rivet and farmer's forges are almost identical
arc welding didn't come to local shops til the teens and 20's
gas welding was around before then but was expensive cause you had to make you own acetylene gas. So if it needed welding.... hammer and heat!
I sold my 20's-40's small forge for 150$ with wheels combo forge and grill to a buddy who will sell it again.

[Twilight Fenrir]

The master smitg I'm apprenticing from has an old champion forge, that was a bit bigger, with a remotr hand-cranked blower. But someone got clever, and stripped a yard tiller down to only a handle, wheels, and frame, then welded the forge on top of it :P Just tilt it back 15 degrees, and you can roll that forge anywhere. Pretty cute.

I picked up a small rivet forge just for taking with me to Fur Trader Rendezvous, and maybe some Renaissance faires. I'm still rebuilding the blower though, have to weld a crack in the cast :/

[Charles Garrett]

I learned black smithing in college before the war.  We called it heat and beat.  Purdue.   Chuck Garrett

[keykeeper]

I only have a couple forges, one permanent and one portable.

Have built a couple in the past, but one rusted out after a couple years, the other I gave away to an aspiring young smith.

I don't give my anvils away, though. lol

[oldgoaly]

1st pic is my  Buffalo forge, has a electric blower and control mounted on the hammer / tong rack.
2nd is my Canedy-Otto farmer's forge, was my neighbor's keeping in his memory.
3rd is the cracked C-O  that I think I can make work again

[bear_man]

I used to have/use a small "farrier's forge" like the above, and knew a farrier who mostly worked the HUGE ranches of NE New Mexico with one just like mine.  Both of ours had refractory cement lining the pans (1 inch to an inch-&-1/2 thick or so) and both had a thin-pipe handle that drove the fan on the down stroke — the driven gear free-wheeled as the counter-balanced handle went back up.  The farrier said that any time there was a kid around when he was working shoes, they always wanted to pump the forge.  Oh, and no, his name was neither Tom nor Sawyer.   (O: