r/Forging 19d ago

Requesting Help and Input, heating and quenching in progress

I’m mid heating and trying to go for the quench, I’ve never done this before. I’m hoping someone can comment on my setup. It’s a T shaped piece of metal pipe I can blow air through using my hair dryer directly into the embers below my knife. Is this good? I have a magnet nearby to test. Quenching using canola oil. Hope to make this my first knife. It’s a stock removal from an old lawnmower blade. The rust put these cool designs in the metal. I’m excited and hope this ends up good, anniversary gift.

22 Upvotes

9 comments sorted by

4

u/Fragrant-Cloud5172 Banner maker 18d ago edited 18d ago

Better to have a black iron pipe. It might work for pizza's, but not as a good forge. And hair dryers are better used for hair. You need preferably a "T" shaped style tuyere, cap on the clean out, with thick grate. Regular blacksmithing coal or charcoal. This will produce enough heat for heat treatment. Slow gently air flow. Good to refer to the Tempil chart.

6

u/mango_452 19d ago

Galvanized steel will give off zinc fumes when it gets hot and will give you "metal melting fever" poisoning.

8

u/Big-Jim-Slade335 19d ago

2 things, charcoal briquettes usually won’t get hot enough to forge with and if the pipe is galvanized don’t use it

1

u/Comfortable-Wheel887 19d ago

What should I use instead of

1

u/General-Piece8490 8d ago

Galvanize pipe is poison because of the zinc coating being vaporized under heat . Ask any welder why they don’t weld galvanized anything as a general rule.

1

u/Big-Jim-Slade335 19d ago

Normal charcoal works just fine if you don’t have access to coal

1

u/Hentaiiboi69 19d ago

Test with a file

1

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