I've done some more thinking and am leaning to a square urtuze, or however you spell it, style burner so that I could use the whole hard fire bricks. I was just wondering if they would protect a layer of the recipe on
melting metal in a home foundry, backyard metalcasting, metal casting if I used it as a thick layer of mortar behind the bricks, for support and insulation? I'd like to use the stuff up since it's been sitting in the shed taking up room for a long while but don't want it burning out after the first couple runs. Cheap is definately good since I'm a student and, since I'm learning, don't feel the need to spend money on high-end refractory during my learning curve. That being said, I also don't want to waste my time with really poor stuff that won't last a burn or too.
Another question that I haven't found the answer in the search button yet, is the approximate fluxing/melting temp of benotite.