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How to Forge Steel at Home

Forging steel is one of the oldest methods in metalworking, and using coke coal as a fuel source is also one of the oldest. Coke is to coal as charcoal is to wood, and can be bought at most large construction stores. You can easily build a forge to use at home, fired with coke, with a few commonly found materials. Forging steel is an art that requires practice before you produce quality pieces.

Things You'll Need

Old barbecue
Drill
Coke
Wood kindling
Lighter fluid
Fan
Anvil
Hammer
Tongs

Instructions

- 1
  Remove the lid and grill from your barbecue. Also remove any gas elements that may be mounted inside. You're creating a simple forge fire pit, with the bottom half of the barbecue used to simply hold the coke and resulting fire.
- 2
  Drill a circle of holes in the bottom center of your barbecue. This lets air be sucked through the bottom of the barbecue and into the fire. As the oxygen is sucked in, it helps the fire burn hotter.
- 3
  Light a small fire using some wooden kindling and lighter fluid. Once the fire gets going, place small pieces of coke into the fire. Place more pieces of coke onto the fire until it's the size you require. Coke is made by heating and cooking, but not combusting, coal.
- 4
  Place the piece of steel you want to forge into the fire, directly onto the burning coke. Direct a fan to blow extra air onto the burning coke to help it burn as hot as possible.
- 5
  Remove the piece of steel when it becomes red-hot using some tongs, and strike it with your hammer against an anvil to shape it as you like. Replace the steel into the fire whenever it cools to less than red-hot.

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