Changed my mind about using a gas forge for bladesmithing

I've always been a coal guy. Been running my old rivet forge for about 4 years now. Last month I picked up a used two burner gas forge at a swap meet in Harrisburg for 80 bucks just because it was cheap. Figured I'd try it out on some simple projects. First few heats felt weird, no visual feedback from the fire color. But I tried forging a chef knife from 1080 and the heat control was way more consistent. No hot spots or cold spots like I get with coal. The blade hardened evenly on the first quench. I still like the ritual of coal but the gas forge definitely has its place. Anybody else switch and regret it or stick with it?

3 comments

3 Comments

taylor_hayes2526d ago

@ray189 I hear ya but lemme tell ya about my buddy Mike. He was the same way, thought all that temperature fuss was just showboating. Bought a cheap gas forge, same one I got, and first blade he tried to harden came out looking like a banana. He brought it over and I put a file to it, thing barely scratched. We realized the forge burner was throwing heat way hotter on one side than the other, not from the gauge but from the flame pattern. He ended up spending a whole weekend tweaking the burner orifice size and the forge lining thickness before he could get even heat. So yeah, maybe it's not Swiss watch precision, but if your forge is putting out different temps on different parts of the blade, that's not just a few degrees off, that's the whole game.

ray18926d ago

Heat control was way more consistent" I mean, come on, you're making knives, not repairing a Swiss watch. A couple degrees off on the heat and you can still get a blade hard enough to cut things. People overthink this stuff.

logan20526d ago

That phrase "a couple degrees off" is interesting though. I think the real issue isn't the heat itself, its how evenly the blade soaks it in. I've seen guys heat a blade cherry red on the edge but leave the spine dead cold, then wonder why it warps. The soak time matters as much as the temperature number.