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My forge blower died mid-quench on a 12 inch bowie and I finished it with a hair dryer
So there I was last Tuesday in my garage shop in Rochester, coal fire going good, blade at 1475 in the magnet check, and the old blower on my forge just quit. No warning, no weird noise, it just stopped. I grabbed my wife's hair dryer and duct taped it to the air pipe, and honestly it worked better than I want to admit. It ain't got the low speed control the blower had but a hair dryer can move some air. Has anyone else had a blower crap out at the worst possible second?
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noahpark26d ago
Nobody ever talks about the air temp going in, and that's the part that would worry me. A hair dryer pushes heated air, not room air, so you're feeding your coal fire with a stream that's already warm. That changes how fast the coke lights and how hot the whole thing wants to run, which might be why it felt stronger than the old blower. A real blower moves cold shop air, so you had two different setups going on and the results won't match blade to blade. For a one time save on a bowie that's fine, but don't trust that combo for repeatability on a batch of knives you care about. Keep the hair dryer in the emergency kit, just know it's a different animal and your heat will wander.
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