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Thanks Frosty, makes sense

So from what I gather I may be able to sift it out at the expense of some physical strength?

UPDATE! Looks like it isn't grog. Here are some photos of the aggregate sifted and washed.

The guy seemed to be pretty convinced he knew what he was doing. Said he had helped many people build forges before. That, coupled with the fact that this guy ran a company that specialized in this stuff, is what initially gave me the confidence to take his word. I hope I wasn't too wrong haha. The stuff is called Uni-Cast 3000 and it's made by a company called United Refractories Co. I tried looking up information about the company and the product but their website just lists the product and no real information on it. All I really know about it is that it's rated for 3000 degrees (as you could guess by the name) and how it is currently working in my paint can forge -- which is actually pretty well. I know it's not a long time, but I've ran my forge for a total of about 20 hours and the refractory seems to be holding up great. There is a crack in it but that's because I had to chip away at it after not putting mold release on the glass bottle I used to form the inner chamber. As well it has taken on an ashen grey color since the first firing. Other than that it looks the way it did when I cast it. The only problem I have with it so far is that gravel. Here are some photos of the packaging--

I haven't seen anywhere online that people have castable refractory like mine, but the stuff that was recommended to me by my local refractory supplier and I inevitably bought comes with gravel mixed in to it. I imagine this is to increase strength much like in concrete, but I wonder if this is needed. The gravel makes it much harder to cast and work with, essentially removing much of it's structural integrity while wet and can fall apart easily without a mold to tamp and pack it in to. Perhaps the gravel can help with thermal properties as well? I suppose it must be there for some kind of reason, the question is whether or not that reason is beneficial to me.

Thanks so much Frosty. I definitely won’t quit, and I will keep learning. That’s actually something I didn’t know, I thought smelting was just melting metal; good to know! Other than that I totally understand. The number of times I’ve learned things by searching up questions on google and reading the answers on a forum is immeasurable. I imagine the people here have to be careful that they are not only answering my questions but leaving a record for anyone else with the same questions in the future. I’ll make sure to try and stay correct in my usage of language for the future. Yeah i guess that’s kind of what I meant. I’m looking for the “ultimate” forge for what I want to accomplish, which is bladesmithing and tool making. I’m sure I’ll find one pertaining to these specifications somewhere on the forum. Thanks Glenn. Yeah I meant refractory. Rest assured, I’m not using cement haha.

Yeah I’m really sorry everyone. I didn’t mean to be so ignorant, I’ll likely just delete the thread and learn what I can from other people’s questions

Sorry my bad, I should have taken more time to seek the answers. Didn't mean to bother you guys with nonsense. Thank you.

WARNING: Really sorry for the long post, however I would really appreciate if you took the time to read through as this is pretty much every question I have about forges rolled into one. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hey guys, Been piecing together my ultimate forge over the last month. I hit a bit of a road bump in needing to know how to weld but I got all that sorted out and am now prepping to cut my material and go ahead with my forge design. I made a scale model of it in Sketchup and I was really happy with it at the time, but now I'm not so sure. I have already made my burner. It is a forced air burner with a 1" through pipe. I plan on creating a 12" long ribbon burner attachment for it, although this may change if I change the dimensions of my forge. After using a makeshift paint can forge for a while I realized a couple things. 1. Forges use a crazy amount of fuel, and I should probably be trying to mitigate that. 2. Steel plate and such that may act as a table around the mouth of the forge will, despite not being in direct contact with the flame, warp very easily. 3. The concrete I have is very hard to lay and essentially has to be cast. It does not work well in just laying it down by hand without a way to keep it in place while you tamp it; It will just fall apart otherwise. 4. My burner doesn't heat NEARLY as well as I was led to believe by all of the forced air fanboys out there. I am skeptical as to how much of a difference a ribbon burner will make. With these things in mind I am becoming increasingly wary and skeptical of my "ultimate" design and would like to ask you guys for suggestions on how to improve it. At the end of the day, I want the forge to be able to accomplish forging blades, from small knives all the way up to large swords, hammers and other hand tools, axe heads, and smelting aluminum in a graphite crucible. I may want to forget about the smelting capabilities if you guys think it will be too much of a burden though. I am planning on lining the forge with about 2" of Kaowool and about a 1/4" of castable refractory (this was originally modelled as 1" of each, but I have since realize that I need no more than a thin layer of castable). I have pictures of the model as well as the model itself available for download here: Imgur Sketchup Model This is what I'm wondering: 1. I realize now the hinges will likely not hold the door up reliably and if they do they will likely break through warping and rusting -- what is a better solution for doors? I have seen interesting hinge designs with bars and rivets, as well as others with pulleys. 2. Is it worth even having doors? I've seen designs where people just lock in some firebrick at the bottom with some angle iron and it just slides across like a door. 3. Have any of you ever felt the need for an opening at the back of your forge larger than mine? (4" wide 2" high) 4. Will a single ribbon burner with a 12" long manifold be able to reliably heat the size of chamber I have designed, regardless of how much propane it takes? 5. If so, will this take a tremendous amount of propane to do so? 6. If the burner won't heat this large of a chamber, what is the largest I could reliably heat? 7. I have the height of my forge designed quite high as I wanted to be able to fit a crucible in. Do you guys think it is worth the extra heating cost, or do you think I would benefit from bringing the height of the forge down? 8. If so, what is an ideal height for a forge to do what I want (mostly just blade work) 9. Is there any benefit to having a long forge like this? Should I decrease the length of the forge? Perhaps the same benefits, if any, would be had with something even yet shorter? 10. On my paint can forge I have an unsupported piece of steel plate that it sits on and this has steadily warped quite easily. Will the welded piece as shown in my model do the same, or will it hold up? Sorry for the long post once again! Thank you everyone!