Making a Portable Forge with Bellows

My son and I volunteer monthly at Hagood Mill's Third Saturday events. He blacksmiths with Kevin Thompson's group, and I work with leather in the woodworking shop.

Inspiration

A few months back, I saw a small, portable forge with bellows and loved it! I mentioned it enough times that Kevin finally got me to set a date to work on it.

The process takes multiple days, so I hope to have it finished by the end of August.

The first week, I worked on it while Falcon made a knife for my sister's birthday. The second time, we both went out to Third Saturday. The third time, I did a 9-hour focused workday and actually learned some forging.

For the bellows making, I followed this process to put the frame together:

Tracing, cutting, sanding

• Traced and cut out three pieces for the bellows

• Shaped and sanded each on the belt sander.

Flaps

• Cut holes into the middle and bottom bellows pieces

• Made wooden flaps with leather hinges to go over the holes

Intake Valve

• Made an intake valve with a hole at the top 1/3

Bellows partly together

• Attached the bottom piece to the valve with hinges

• Attached the middle piece with glue and screws under the valve hole

• Glued and nailed the handle to the top piece

• Attached the top piece to the valve with hinges

In between sessions, I took the top of the bellows home and wood burned a dragon's face onto it.

Wood burned dragon face

For a video overview of the process, watch the Short below!