Museum Forge part 6/7 - recycling farm equipment, making aku @islandblacksmith

Uploaded March 2017 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago

Read more about this project here: islandblacksmith.ca/2017/01/building-traditional-swordsmith-forge
See more traditional Japanese swordsmith style forge construction projects here: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBJ5AOs7cMwCSinW7foaiHFZKbZDkasQL

Most of history was forged with very simple equipment made from found and natural materials. A basic charcoal forge can be made with clay, brick, or even mud and stone.

Traditional Japanese swordsmithing forges are purpose-built with certain design elements specific to the tasks involved in tanren and hizukuri. This 7 part series will illustrate several of the features that are common to this type of construction and follow the process of crafting a functioning swordsmith’s forge at a museum on Vancouver Island.

Museum Forge part 6/7 - recycling farm equipment, making aku

$3 minute forge and 5 minute forge making...bring your own bellows! diy Building two examples of quick and simple diy sideblast charcoal forges with found and reclaimed materials to demonstrate that lack of equipment and materials should not be a major obstacle. See more in-depth forge builds on the bladesmith forge building playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBJ5AOs7cMwCSinW7foaiHFZKbZDkasQL Ways to improve these concepts include: mixing copious amounts of chopped straw or charcoal powder into the clay to make it refractory, using high temperature kiln bricks, making the walls higher and longer, using the clay to narrow the tuyere to about 1sun/3cm right where it enters at the bottom side of the forge, putting a barrier up to protect the fuigo (and allowing a shorter pipe), allowing the clay to dry before lighting the forge, etc... Note that if the pipe is galvanized best fit with another section of non-galvanized or at least file off the last 2 inches of zinc in case your tuyere accidentally gets heated to an orange yellow heat and burns off the zinc causing toxic fumes... Full traditional swordsmith forge build documentation here: http://islandblacksmith.ca/2017/01/building-traditional-swordsmith-forge/ Smaller tanto forge build here: http://islandblacksmith.ca/2017/04/building-a-charcoal-tanto-forge/ Fuigo box bellows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ecetg1B7y4&t=0s&index=16&list=PLBJ5AOs7cMwCSinW7foaiHFZKbZDkasQL$

TLDW #27 - Forging a Saya Nomi (鞘鑿, scabbard chisel) - from reclaimed farm equipment (harrow tooth)

Blacksmith Forging Plastic? DIY snowskate from recycled decking material

Preparing and Loading the Charcoal Making Kiln

Hand Forged from Farm Scrap - The Culinary Knife Project

TLDW #13 - Mountain Kotanto natural urushi lacquering

TimeWarp #3 - Tanto Forging Practice: Railroad Spike

Louie Mills - Yasutomo (康友) - Forging a Tanto, 2013 (full process)

SOTW #20 - Assembling the Furusato Tanto (aikuchi w/ireko saya)