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Umm ultra high temp?


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I have to take issue with discouraging the newbie in what is supposed to be an educational forum. While I agree with Mr. Powers that castable ceramics would likely be prohibitively expensive, they may indeed have refractory application - perhaps in a burner nozzle itself. Whether or not there is practical application for the material Mr. Cable has brought to our attention, it is premature to summarily dismiss his post as irrelevant. Any material that has a high heat resistance certainly merits discussion with relation to blacksmithing.

Mr. Cable, I hope that you will not be discouraged from making further contributions and seeking further information on our site based on this experience. We are all here for an open exchange of information for mutual benefit because we love and wish to preserve this ancient craft. I have looked at your previous posts and it is clear that you, like many of us, are getting your start with limited resources and employing the kind of inventiveness that makes this trade/hobby so fascinating. You will have failures and successes, good ideas and bad and it's all part of the learning process. I, for one, applaud your willingess not only to take initiative, but to give something back by contributing ideas. Thank you.

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Thanks for the info!

One of my customers gets their billets quite..., well, toasty, by heating with oxyhydrogen ! :D

They forge billets of iridium and 'top up' the temp after a preheat in open atmosphere with 2 torches - usefull to know there are off the shelf refractories we could make an enclosure from.

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interesting stuff i would like to see the cost. in reading the pdf if you cast over 4" there is special drying requirements. you could do some cool shapes for gas forges with. the big question would be how dose it hold up in a propane environment and will it hold up to fluxes I have seen it in a electrical application.

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Thank you for the information, I found the high temperature gasket material of special interest and have requested them to send me a catalog. I appreciate the information.



....they may indeed have refractory application - perhaps in a burner nozzle itself. .....Thank you.

P.S. Hey Junksmith, I hope to see you at the Blacksmithing Conference in Westminster Maryland this weekend. I'll probably be only semi-conscious due to sleep deprivation, so grab my attention and say hello! My advance apologies to anyone that expects intelligence from me this weekend.
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Umm, no, and what does this have to do with general blacksmithing? Or any blacksmithing?


Umm, I think you'll find that that was actually the question--what applications might a blacksmith find for it? But I guess it is more fun to be superior without providing any actual information sometimes....

(I should add that I'm curious too--never worked with the stuff, don't know what I'd do with it, but it sounds interesting!)
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Thanks for the link Mr Cable. Looks like some interesting stuff. Yes, as someone mentioned, perhaps casting of parts in a forge that get the worst of the heat; burner nozzles, opposite wall from burner etc. Hey..... Forge, Burners? Sounds like blacksmithing to me ;)

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Thank you for the information, I found the high temperature gasket material of special interest and have requested them to send me a catalog. I appreciate the information.



P.S. Hey Junksmith, I hope to see you at the Blacksmithing Conference in Westminster Maryland this weekend. I'll probably be only semi-conscious due to sleep deprivation, so grab my attention and say hello! My advance apologies to anyone that expects intelligence from me this weekend.


Wish I could make it David. It would be nice to see you too. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I have lots of production to catch up on and a demo on Sunday so I'm out. I know I need to get more active in the blacksmith community, but striking a balance between forge and family is tricky these days. Some people act like blacksmithing shouldn't be as high a proirity as my job for some reason! :D
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This for sure is an interesting thread and I am sure at least one or more are likely to give it a go. The comment about what does this have to do with blacksmithing may possibly have to do with it being posted in the blacksmithing area of the site. It was moved to its present location by one of the volunteer mods. It seems thatr almost daily they find a reson to take the time to do that.

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Being of the bent that it's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it, over amping the temp rating on refractory is probably a good thing. It's a might help, can't hurt.

On the other hand most everybody I know making gas burners talk about how long the flare lasts, some a while, some hours. Makes me thing a 4,000f refractory should make a dandy flare, all a person would have to do is put a 1:12 taper in the forge liner with the narrow end out to accept the burner tube.

Frosty The Lucky.

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It may be a nice thing to have around considering how hot a melting furnace gets. I know that some of us do casting anyway and that gets plenty hot. I generally pour my bronze at 3,750F so the inside of my furnace gets plenty hot! I have used the same burner for forty years and still not burned the tip off because my flare is made up of the refractory of the melting furnace liner so the end is never in contact with the actual flame. It has discolored some over the years.

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http://www.cotronics.com/catalog/

The salesman sent me this listing for prices.

Costly to some degree, but if it holds up.....may be good for the interior several inches of a melting furnace or high temp welding forge backed up with a blanket insulation.

Ric

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I always poured my silicon bronze high because by the time you shut the furnace down, hooked on with the lift tongs, put it in the pouring shank and poured it all out into all of the flasks you could be assured of it still being hot enough not to get a cold shunt. It was better to pour it hot as blazes than to need to repour a mold or do a lot of patch work. The inside of my old furnace was flowing downward to the bottom like molten glass, which it was, and all it was lined with was standard fire brick, it lasted about ten years that way and then I made a new lining of bentonite clay and silica sand to smear over the old eroding fire brick, wore well and turned into a fine glass also.

OK, got out my old notebook and looked at my notes, shut down at 3250F not 3750F, I was off by 500F, must have thought I was melting platinum or something else beside silicon bronze. The inside of the furnace is still pretty incandescent though.

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  • 4 months later...

All the bronze I have ever poured was in the 1900-2200 f range. Yellow brass, which forges nicely will tell you when by gassing off zinc. Watch out for Galvo. Makes for a miserable night. Silicon bronze, higher end of scale. Aluminum bronze several hundred hotter than the upper range, but it makes pretty miserable castings if you're not handling it correctly. Sorry but, 3250 was burning alloy out of your metal. You're talking steel and iron temps up there. Glad it worked for you, lot of extra fuel.

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