Forge refractory ideas?

C

cooper_luke_10

Joined
Dec 11, 2008
Messages
20
Hi
I'm part way through my forge construction and I've only got the burner (forced air) and insulation to go.
I found a pottery supplier that can get me some hot face blanket (25mm thick 1400 degree celcius) And I was planning to use two layers of this with some kao wool hardener on top.

Then I wondered would I be able to use one layer of the hot face blanket on the bottom half of my forge and cover it with 15 to 20mm of a high alumina castable so that I would be able to try my hande at forge welding in the future, if I am correct in assuming high alumina is resistant to borax flux.

My forge is a 20 pound gas bottle on its side split down the middle so that I have a top and bottom "hemisphere" with openings at each end. the burner is held in place in the bottom half at a tangent and will be removeable.

Any suggestions from people more knowledgeable then me would be great.
Thanks
 
Luke,

I'm used to seeing a pound rating with ceramic insulating blanket. Is the stuff you mention 8#? A lot of the forge blanket I see for sale has a 2300F (1260C) rating. I don't know blanket as well as I know brick. With brick, a 2300F rating is better insulating than a 2600F rating. I assume that is true of blanket also.

What little I've read about rammable refractory lined forges (Kevin Cashen's site, Tim Zowada's site, and some threads under rammable refractory), 1" of insulating blanket is the system.

It seems like a person using rammable refractory just for the bottom of a forge will need to figure a way to keep it from compacting the blanket. The ceramic outfits have little cones of different lengths the blanket could be fit over and would support the rammable floor.

If the entire interior is rammable... like 1 1/4" inside of 1" blanket... I think it is self supporting but might still need something like the cones to maintain blanket thickness.

Mike
 
I'm not sure of the poundage of the blanket, it didn't mention anything in the catalogue and the guy at the warehouse didn't know.
I explained what I wanted to the guy at the ware house but I think he knows more about pottery kilns because some of what he told me wasn't on the same par as what I have seen on this forum.
I would be interested in trying the stainless steel idea if you have more info on it and how well it worked Mike. I should be able to get some stainless from my work.

The other problem I'm finding is being in Australia I think the knife making community is much smaller so there isn't anyone over here supply specially to our market which kind of makes it hard for a beginner like me to start.
 
Luke,

Should be the manufacturer's data on the ceramic blanket lists the weight.

I wasn't offering to tell about stainless forge bottoms... I was asking if you had experience. I came across a discussion on it somewhere and have lost it... either didn't save the data or saved it in a way I can't find in the "Knives" folder. It's been long enough ago I'm doubting what I recall, which is it resists flux eating it very well. Could, in the end, be just wishful thinking.

Mike
 
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