Dictionary Definition
forge
Noun
1 furnace consisting of a special hearth where
metal is heated before shaping
2 a workplace where metal is worked by heating
and hammering [syn: smithy]
Verb
1 create by hammering; "hammer the silver into a
bowl"; "forge a pair of tongues" [syn: hammer]
2 make a copy of with the intent to deceive; "he
faked the signature"; "they counterfeited dollar bills"; "She
forged a Green Card" [syn: fake, counterfeit]
3 come up with (an idea, plan, explanation,
theory, or priciple) after a mental effort; "excogitate a way to
measure the speed of light" [syn: invent, contrive, devise, excogitate, formulate]
4 move ahead steadily; "He forged ahead"
6 make something, usually for a specific
function; "She molded the riceballs carefully"; "Form cylinders
from the dough"; "shape a figure"; "Work the metal into a sword"
[syn: shape, form, work, mold, mould]
7 make out of components (often in an improvising
manner); "She fashioned a tent out of a sheet and a few sticks"
[syn: fashion]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Pronunciation
- /fɔ:dʒ/, /fO:dZ/
- Rhymes: -ɔː(r)dʒ
Etymology 1
From Old French forge, earlier faverge, from Latin fabrica workshop, from faber (genitive fabri) workman in hard materials, smith. Sense of to counterfeit is in Anglo-French verb forger falsify, from Old French forgier, from Latin fabricari to frame, construct, build.Noun
Translations
furnace or hearth
- Dutch: smeltoven, smidsvuur
- Finnish: ahjo
- German: Schmiedeofen
workshop
counterfeit
- Dutch: vervalsing
- ttbc Portuguese: Forja - Place where metal is shaped by heating and hammering.
- ttbc Spanish: fragua
Etymology 2
Make way, move ahead, most likely an alteration of force, but perhaps from forge (n.), via notion of steady hammering at something. Originally nautical, in referrence to vessels.Verb
- To shape a metal by heating and hammering.
- To form or create with
concerted effort.
- The politician's recent actions are an effort to forge a relationship with undecided voters.
- To create a forgery
of; to make a counterfeit item of; to copy
or imitate unlawfully.
- He had to forge his ex-wife's signature.
- ''The jury learned the documents had been forged.
- He had to forge his ex-wife's signature.
- (often as forge ahead)
To move forward heavily
and slowly (originally as a ship); to advance gradually but steadily; to
proceed towards a goal
in the face of resistance or difficulty.
- The party of explorers forged through the thick underbrush.
- We decided to forge ahead with our plans even though our biggest underwriter backed out.
- The party of explorers forged through the thick underbrush.
- (sometimes as forge ahead)
To advance, move or act
with an abrupt increase
in speed or energy.
- With seconds left in the race, the runner forged into first place.
Translations
to create a forgery of
- Dutch: vervalsen
- Finnish: väärentää
- German: fälschen
- Polish: fałszować, podrabiać
to move forward gradually in the face of
resistance
Derived terms
See also
Extensive Definition
A forge is the workplace of a smith
or a blacksmith. A
forge is sometimes referred to as a smithy.
The basic smithy contains a forge, also known as
a hearth, for heating
metals. The forge heats the workpiece to a malleable temperature or
to the point where work
hardening no longer occurs. The workpiece is transported to and
from the forge using tongs. The tongs are also used to
hold the workpiece on the smithy's anvil while the smith works it
with a hammer. Finally
the workpiece is transported to the slack tub,
which rapidly cools the workpiece in a large body of water. The
slack tub also provides water to control the fire in the
forge.
Types of forges
Coal/coke/charcoal forge
A forge which typically uses bituminous coal, industrial coke or
charcoal as the fuel to
heat metal. The designs of these forges have varied over time, but
whether the fuel is coal, coke or charcoal the basic design has
remained the same.
A forge of this type is essentially a hearth or fireplace designed to allow a
fire to be controlled such that metal introduced to the fire may be
brought to a malleable state or to bring about other metallurgical
effects (hardening, annealing, and drawing temper as examples). The
forge fire in this type of forge is controlled in three ways: 1)
amount of air, 2) volume of fuel, and 3) shape of the
fuel/fire.
Over thousands of years of forging, these devices
have evolved in one form or another as the essential features of
this type of forge:
- Tuyere -- a pipe through which air can be forced into the fire
- Bellows or blower -- a means for forcing air into the tuyere
- Firepot or hearth -- a place where the burning fuel can be contained over or against the tuyere opening.
During operation, fuel is placed in or on the
hearth and ignited. A source of moving air, such as a fan or
bellows, introduces
additional air into the fire through the tuyere. With additional
air, the fire consumes more fuel and burns hotter.
A blacksmith balances the fuel
and air in the fire to suit particular kinds of work. Often this
involves adjusting and maintaining the shape of the fire.
In a typical, but by no means universal, coal
forge, a firepot will be centered in a flat hearth. The tuyere will
enter the firepot at the bottom. In operation, the hot core of the
fire will be a ball of burning coke in and above the firepot. The
heart of the fire will be surrounded by a layer of hot but not
burning coke. Around the unburnt coke will be a transitional layer
of coal being transformed into coke by the heat of the fire.
Surrounding all is a ring or horseshoe-shaped layer of raw coal,
usually kept damp and tightly packed to maintain the shape of the
fire's heart and to keep the coal from burning directly so that it
"cooks" into coke first.
If a larger fire is necessary, the smith
increases the air flowing into the fire as well as feeding and
deepening the coke heart. The smith can also adjust the length and
width of the fire in such a forge to accommodate different shapes
of work.
The major variation from the forge and fire just
described is a 'back draft' where there is no fire pot, and the
tuyere enters the hearth horizontally from the back wall.
Coke and charcoal may be burned in the same
forges that use coal, but since there is no need to convert the raw
fuel at the heart of the fire (as with coal), the fire is handled
differently.
Individual smiths and specialized applications
have fostered development of a variety of forges of this type, from
the coal forge described above, to simpler constructions amounting
to a hole in the ground with a pipe leading into it.
Gas forge
A forge typically uses propane or natural gas as the fuel. One common, efficient design uses a cylindrical forge chamber and a burner tube mounted at a right angle to the body. The chamber is typically lined with refractory materials, preferably a hard castable refractory ceramic. The burner mixes fuel and air which are ignited at the tip, which protrudes a short way into the chamber lining. The air pressure, and therefore heat, can be increased with a mechanical blower or by taking advantage of the Venturi effect.Gas forges vary in size and construction, from
large forges using a big burner with a blower or several
atmospheric burners to forges built out of a coffee can utilizing a cheap,
simple propane torch. A small forge can even be carved out of a
single soft firebrick.
The primary advantage of a gas forge is ease of
use, particularly for a novice. A gas forge is simple to operate
compared to coal forges, and the fire produced is clean and
consistent. They are less versatile, as the fire cannot be reshaped
to accommodate large or unusually shaped pieces;. It is also
difficult to heat a small section of a piece. A common
misconception is that gas forges cannot produce enough heat to
enable forge-welding,
but a well designed gas forge is hot enough for any task.
Forging Equipment
Anvil
The anvil serves as a work bench to the blacksmith, where the metal to be beaten is placed. An anvil body is made of mild steel, with a top face of high carbon steel approximately 20mm thick welded on it. The flat top has two holes; the wider is called the hardy hole, where the square shank of the hardy fits. The smaller hole is called the punch hole, used as clearance when punching holes in hot metal.Chisel
Chisels are made of high carbon steel whose cross-section is an octagon. They are hardened and tempered at the cutting edge while the head is left soft so it will not crack when hammered. Chisels are of two types, the hot and cold chisels. The cold chisel is used for cutting cold metals while the hot chisel is for hot metals. Usually the hot chisels are thinner and therefore can not be substituted with the cold chisel.Tongs
Tongs are used by the blacksmith for holding hot metals securely. The mouths are made in various shapes to suit the gripping of various shapes of metal.Fuller
Fullers are forming tools of different shapes used in making grooves or hollows. They are often used in pairs, the bottom fuller has a square shank which fits into the hardy hole in the anvil while the top fuller has a handle. The work is placed on the bottom fuller and the top is placed on the work and struck with a hammer. The top fuller is also used for finishing round corners and for stretching or spreading metal.Hardy
The hardy is a cutting tool similar to the chisel. It is used as a chisel or hammer for cutting both hot and cold metals. It has a square shank that fits into the hardy hole in the anvil, with the cutting edge facing upwards. The metal to be cut is placed on the cutting edge and struck with a hammer.See also
External links
- Forging Magazine - All issues available online free of charge.
- The ERC/NSM: A metal forming research organization at The Ohio State University,USA
- Glossary of Forging Terms and Definitions
- Benefits of the Forging Process
- Brigham Young University - Drop Forging
- University of Washington - Manufacturing Techniques
- Animation of Forging Firetongs
- Pictures of a large forge at work
- Video of a ring being forged by a silversmith — With permission from The Devil's Workshop
- How to forge nails
- Russian Forging
forge in Catalan: Forja
forge in Danish: Smedje
forge in German: Schmiede
forge in Spanish: Forja
forge in French: Forgeage
forge in Italian: Fucina
forge in Japanese: 鍛造
forge in Georgian: ჭედვა
forge in Latvian: Smēde
forge in Dutch: Smeden
forge in Norwegian: Smie
forge in Polish: kucie
forge in Russian: ковка
forge in Swedish: Smide
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
act like, affect, assume, beat, blacksmith shop, block out,
bloomery, borrow, build, carve, cast, chisel, chorus, coin, concoct, construct, cook up, copy, counterfeit, create, crib, cut, devise, ditto, do, do like, echo, efform, fabricate, fake, falsify, fantasize, fashion, figure, fix, form, formalize, found, foundry, frame, fudge, furnace, go like, hatch, hew, hoke, hoke up, imitate, invent, knead, knock out, lay out, lick
into shape, make, make
like, make up, manufacture, metalworks, mint, mirror, model, mold, mould, plagiarize, pound, put together, reecho, reflect, repeat, reproduce, rough out, roughcast, roughhew, sculpt, sculpture, set, shape, shove the queer, simulate, smelter, smithery, smithy, stamp, steel mill, steelworks, stithy, tailor, thermoform, think up, trump
up, turn out, utter,
work