I am a woodworker by trade and spend my days building Japanese-style architectural elements and structures. Because of my chosen niche, I occasionally need a piece of hardware that’s impossible to find in this country. Sometimes I ask friends in Japan to track it down. But other times, if the piece isn’t too complicated, I’lI make it myself. Recently, I needed to make 500 old-style Japanese nails. In the past I would simply fire up a propane plumber’s torch, hold each piece over it until it was glowing, and then hammer away. That was fine when a dozen nails were all I needed, but this time I knew I needed a more efficient way to heat all those nails, so I built a micro forge.
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Steps
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Step #1: Drill the brick.




- Note: Firebricks are really soft and easy to cut. So soft, in fact, that you can dig into them with a fingernail, but they are still rated to 2,300°F. Ordinary wood/metal drill bits go through them like butter.
- The nails I was making were 2½” long, and I wanted to keep the forge chamber as compact as possible, so I used the brick’s biggest face (4½"x9") as the front, which allows for the shallowest chamber. Make a mark on the front face, 2¼” in from one end, and centered 2¼” from either side.
- Wear a dust mask. Set the drill press to its lowest speed (mine was 250rpm) and drill a hole 2 1/8” wide and 2" deep, centered on your mark.
- Note: Drill slowly — you don’t want this stuff flying all over the place. With a slow speed, most of the dust should stay in the hole until you dump it out.