Douglas Gault

This is an old post but I've had tremendous success in casting my own refractory. Heat over 2200 deg isn't nessasary unless you intend to destroy perfectly good steel and forge refractory materials. For your desired temp of 3000 puts you into the graphite bricks which really expensive. I make a fantastic blend of 60% vermiculite 10% sand 15 ball clay and 15% alumina. After a fire cure I then glaze the surface with a talcum based ceramic glaze to seal the refractory. When using Flux I always place scrap ceramic tiles to to protect the floor of my forge. Altogether this has been my best home brewed blend and give my forge a cleanable hard surface. The next refractory job I'm planning on trying out a surface skim coat of high tamp returns porcelain that's high in alumina talcum and graphite for a more durable surface. All of my refractory has been bonded with homemade water glass and ball clay mixture. And I couldn't be happier with the results. As this applies to gas forges. At times I've been so aggravated with residual damage from Flux that I threatened to Flux only on my old coal forge to advertise the mess over gas propelled heat source. Where all of these headaches can be avoided. Also I use the old timers recipes for my Flux that contain alot of charcoal powder. Eventually I would like to try course soapstone as a bottom for better preformance.