Lining a gas forge?

[Kalindras]

Okay, I've cut my pipe down to about 16", and I've pretty much decided that I'm going with a horizontal, one-burner design. I plan to block the ends with firebrick, so I can seal off the ends or make openings for longer pieces as needed.

I've got my perlite and furnace cement, and am almost ready to line it out, but I've got one question:

I've seen a bunch of folks in different places and on various sites mention lining the forge with steel. One guy even talks about making a forge by taking two sections of heating duct and filling the gap between the two with refractory.

My question is this: A forge is designed, by its nature, to heat steel, and in many cases, to melt it (or even liquify it). If you line it with steel, wouldn't that lining melt?!? Essentially, wouldn't you be left with a puddle of molten slag in the bottom? Am I crazy? Or does the refractory provide enough of a heat-sink to prevent it?

Is this lining necessary? Beneficial? Hazardous? Downright silly?

 

[Bruce Evans]

Leave the metal out as it will just burn up,unless you are using a thick walled piece of 304 stainless that is.
The only benefite I could think aboy using a metal lining is that if you use stainless it will keep the Borax off the bottom of the lining and thus save repairs longer,I have a 304 stainless shelf in mine to keep the piece of stel I am working on off the yuky floor of the forge.
Bruce

 

[peter nap]

What Brruce said. The steel only helps to keep the flux off the floor or keep from burning the insulation across from the jet. The floor works fine but firebrick does too. For the side I would leave it off and adjust your burner to create a circular flow rather than straight across. That also heats the forge better.

Steel does work fine for the forge shell. I have a sword forge made of stove pipe and have used it for years. The lining is what takes all the heat, not the shell.