Len Landrum's Forges

The above picture shows Len Landrum standing next to his portable demonstration forge. After hauling his large forge around for years to instruct at hammer-in's and demo's Len decided it was time to build somthing that was a bit more managable for carrying around. The Goddard style single brick forge is pretty portable, so what did Len do? He took the Goddard firebrick forge to the limit! :) Len laid two Soft Insulating Firebricks on top of each other and then rubbed them together to get a nice smooth contact surface. He then built a metal box to go around the firebricks and protect them while travelling. The result, is a really nice two brick forge that is extremely portable and easy to set up and take down!

This picture shows the stand Len fabricated. The T-style stand provides stability and the pipe coupling at the top holds the actual forge body.

Front view of the forge showing the naturally aspirated venturi burner Len constructed as well as the stand showing the adjustable support in front. The front and rear opening were cut out before the box was built. The firebricks were bored out using the metal frame openings as a guide once the firebricks were encased.

Side view of the forge

Left front view of the forge. Notice the winged legs Len used for this forge. This allow the forge to be used with the stand or by itself on a table top. Also, the handle on top really makes it easy for transporting!

Rear view of the forge.

Rear lower view of the forge showing some of the construction details. Len Landrum is on the left, James Gibson (hidden) in the center, Jim Prill is on the right, and Darren Ellis is behind the camera. :)

Another front view. It's up to temp!

Another lower front view again showing some of the construction details.

Top of the base stand.

Bottom of the forge showing the pipe that sits in the larger pipe on the base stand.

Side view showing where the venturi burner enters the forge. Len carved a flare into the firebrick itself negating the burner flare typically needed with venturi burners.

Picture of the inside of the forge chamber. The forge chamber is lined with Satanite to provide some abrasion resistance. You can see the burner hole in the upper left hand side.

The whole assembly disassembled and ready for travel. This is pretty slick little firebrick forge, kind of a functional novelty item!

In collaboration with Chuck Robinson, Len built a small venturi burner to operate this forge with. The above picture shows the choke plate fully closed and the picture below show it with the choke plate open.

This picture shows Len's main forge for making knives and Damascus.

...and it does get hot! Len fabricated this forge so that he has two doors on the front side that can be opened and closed off as needed. The design is the standard vertical tube forge configuration.

A rare picture showing Richard Williams using Len's forge at the hammer-in at Larry Harley's shop during Spring 2003. If you ever get to watch Richard forge a blade, you'll be in for a treat as he makes every aspect of forging to shape look so easy getting everything perfect every time. Richard is the resident Blacksmith/Bladesmith at Dollywood located in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. You can view Len Landrum's fine handcrafted knives at the following url: http://www.Landrumknives.com Len forges all of his blades and is well known for his outstanding heat treatment and experiments with 52100 steel.