In undergrad at Bucknell, I built a three burner propane forge to try out some blacksmithing. It was part of the “Makers Movement” on campus, where students could get funding to become more involved with hands-on projects.
I did this as an independent study project with Nate Siegel, my professor for Thermal Design and Heat Transfer.
Originally we set out to forge a traditional Japanese katana, but we quickly discovered why it takes decades to perfect that art.
We did get some cool heat transfer models out of it. We were trying to model heat flow through the blade during a quenching process, determining if we could adjust the fluid properties to achieve desired microstructures in the blade.
The Bucknell website did a piece on the project. The interviewer was actually talking to Professor Siegel, but in the article they attributed the lines to me. I don’t normally talk in the 3rd-person like that.