Shady Grove Blacksmith Shop

Simple Forge Hood

Inexpensive to build out of recycled material. Works as good as an expensive hood!

This basic system allows for a reasonable sized pile of green coal on both sides of the firepot leaving room for the coke trough down the middle of the firepot.

The Metal Case can be any shape: round (30 to 55 gal. drum?), square, rectangular, oval. Size of the case is not important other than it should be large enough to accommodate the brick with a little space on the sides and behind the brick. Any kind of low cost brick can be used and can be just stacked or they can be mortared in place. Note that the bricks are set so that the opening is wider in front and tapers narrower in the back. The opening at the back of the brick should be 10 to 11 inches. Most rectangular firepots are about 15" long, therefore the front spacing of the brick will be about 15 to 16 inches. Even if the firepot is round, make the front of the brick about 15" wide in order to leave space for a pile of coal. The front opening hole cut in the case would be 20 inches wide if standard 3.5 inch brick are used. Each side of the opening in the case touches the bricks in the middle of the side of the bricks. The opening would be 6 bricks high. The front of the bricks should be even with the chimney side of the firepot. A piece of metal can be placed across top of the brick to further help the smoke and fire be guided up the chimney. The chimney should be at least 12 inches in diameter (could be square) (see Forges).

The bricks serve 3 main purposes. One is to keep the metal case from deteriorating too fast from the effects of the fire. Another is to guide the smoke/fire from the firepot into a smaller opening. A smaller opening helps the chimney to draw as it is gulping less cool air. Between the bricks is a readily accessible place, on the table, to pile green coal (usually on both sides of the firepot). This configuration was successfully used by many old brick and stone forges.

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