First forge, first snag...

R

Ry T

Joined
Apr 25, 2017
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Hi folks,

This is my first time posting here. Hopefully not the last. :-)

I'm finally taking the plunge into the world of knife making, and building my first gas forge. Already have my propane burners working great. I had high temp 2800F firebrick on order (no one could find it locally, small town...), but long story short, that deal fell through, so now I'm scrambling to come up with a viable "plan B", and would like to know if this will work:

Arrange ordinary soft firebricks (K-23 brick, 2300F) into a square tube, open on both ends, approx. 9x18x7" internal volume. Drill and fire burners from the top. Wrap all four enclosed sides in kaowool (or at least line the bottom... I'm not sure how critical that is). Then box the whole thing in with some angle iron and scrap steel, just to hold it all together. Stick a loose firebrick at either end to act as a "door" when in use.

Do I need a refractory coating on the bricks to get started? Or can I get by without it?

At first I just need to be able to heat up relatively thin ordinary mild + carbon steels for beginner forging and heat treating. Later on I want to get into forge welding, but not right away, so if I need to do some revamping at that point, that's fine.

Will this work? Or do I need to rethink this new plan?
 
Pics?

Also honestly you are gonna want a coating on the Kaowool more than anything otherwise fibers will get airborne and poke tiny little holes that shouldn't be in your lungs. If you want to up the efficiency you might want to have a bit of refractory, fire bricks are massive heat sinks and do not reflect heat much.
 
If the lining is the fire brick, then it will work. The lower temp will not last as long as the high temp brick. The wrap of kao-wool does not need to be coated, but a sheet metal casing would be neater than one made from angle iron.
 
Thanks for the replies! Yes, the bricks are on the interior. I stupidly did not think to take any pictures, but I can tell you that I've stacked the 4.5x9x2" firebricks, wrapped the Kaowool around them, and am building a box out of 1/8" sheet metal I had lying around the shop (including a lip on the front and back to keep the bricks from sliding around, and a shelf on the front and back). So the wool should not ever see the light of day, unless I need to change out a brick or something. I'll see if I can come up with a diagram of what I've done in lieu of a photo.
 
That should work. BTW, don't block the ends fully in use. You can restrict them as needed, but must allow enough venting for proper combustion.
 
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