2-Brick Forge question

Tyson A Wright

Tyson A Wright

Gold Member
Joined
Jun 9, 2020
Messages
1,852
Hello, everyone! Long time lurker, just became a member, first post.

I'm building the 'non-traditional' 2-brick forge described in this old post. One modification I'm wondering about: would it make sense to to put refractory cement on the outside of the forge? The reason for putting it inside is that it protects the bricks from getting chipped and dinged out when you put blades in it. Why not have some outside, also to protect the bricks? I wouldn't want the inside and outside cement to connect, because I'm under the impression that it will conduct heat rather than insulate, but having it as a hard layer to protect the rather soft bricks seems like it might be useful. Is there a good reason to NOT do this? (And I have more cement than I need, so conserving cement is not really important here.)

Thanks!

-Tyson
 
Last edited:
I would do it. Those bricks always leave nasty dust on your hands after touching them and being that they are so soft they get ground by everything and leave dust everywhere, and they could chip. I see it as a no-lose situation if you have enough mortar.
 
Well, the metal cloth does a good job of holding things together. If you put the mortar over the cloth, it shouldn't be a problem. Unnecessary, but not a problem. If you try without the cloth, you will learn that all bricks crack at forging temp and it will fall apart if you dont have some metal holding it together.
 
I would use the refractory cement to patch the inevitable cracks your going to get from using the little forge vs. coating it beforehand. You're still going to get cracks even with it on the outside. Refractory bricks do not like rapid heating and cooling and therefore they crack and break.

If you could run the forge for months on end the bricks hold up really well, but drastic temperature changes causes them to break / crack.
 
I recently built a 2 brick forge off those plans. I ended up grabbing a sheet of 12"x24"x22GA weldable (plain) sheet steel from Home Depot for $10. I don't have any sheet steel bending experience and didn't want to mess with length loss due to bends so I just bent (4) 90s and then screwed it all together. The screws I used stick into the bricks just enough to secure them in place so I didn't use the long screws to hold them all together. I stripped the zinc coating off the screws with vinegar as I wasn't sure how much they would heat up and off gas. The finished product does a good job protecting against chips but also encasing the bricks for when they inevitably crack.

I am still learning how to post pictures but the link below should have a little schematic along with a couple pictures of the finished product.

https://imgur.com/a/KUnqwbJ
 
Last edited:
I'm using a modified two brick forge for my day-to-day forging while I save for a new Atlas. It's firebrick with refractory cement inside and out. Is it cracking? Of course. But it's held together nicely for a couple of months now. That said, the metal on the outside is by far the superior choice.
 
KbjEKbT.png


JTsqAMM.jpg


wLK1UgP.jpg
 
Thank you everyone for your replies!

I got sidetracked by other projects, but I'm finally starting my 2BF build. Today I'm going to cut and drill my bricks, and dry them out a bit in the oven (200°F for a couple of hours, then turn the oven off and leave them in overnight). Tomorrow I will assemble it and coat it all with cement (inside, and outside over the metal cloth). If it totally fails, I'll just build another one (and share my results as a new data point for others).

Thanks again,

-Tyson
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top