"I don't consider that one a good design either; but the big thing I notice between yours and it is that the Burner holder tubes are much more tightly configured to the burner tubes---less exhaust going straight up to the intake."
What you can't see is that the flare on my burner tube is a very tight fit to the hole in the brick so there actually isn't a bunch of exhaust coming up the tube. I could easily put a sliding cap on the smaller tube to make it even more tight though.
"Now as to money; you could have built a similar forge without the exhaust issues for probably the same amount of money."
As I said already, this was all made from recycled stuff I already had, so the cost was $0. I also live in a small town in rural Saskatchewan so I can't just run out and get stuff easily (pretty much have to order stuff like that online adding shipping costs). Those front two bricks act like sliding doors, they can be closed or opened more, front and back (someday many moons from now it will be good for a sword.)
"Note that the last time I spent a couple of days in the hospital the bill was US$50000"
Sorry to hear that...don't really have that problem where I'm from.
C0 is something I ALWAYS keep in mind when working in my shop, it's fairly large and leaks air like a sieve, also has an 8" high speed exhaust fan in the ceiling.
" Finally improvements: Why not move the burner to the side and run it at an angle to help avid recycling exhaust? "
I considered going at an angle but making a nice hole in these brick at an angle isn't really possible with the tools I have available. These are the heavy firebricks, not the kind you can cut easily. I know these ones will soak up some heat and take longer to get the forge up to working temp...
I know you hate the design all around but I see a ton of knife makers using the same format, heck I even saw a square brick one in one of Bob Kramer's videos.
Thanks for the feedback, I will probably add a top cap to the larger tube if I find a lot of leakage around that next time I fire it up.