oldnumber12 Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 Since I haven't seen any reference to it, I'm curious if anyone has substituted hardwood lump charcoal for sawdust in their firebrick recipie. I've been experimenting a bit and found it is fairly easy to pulverize/grind down small enough to pass through a window screen. My uneducated theory being it might create more uniformed micro pores in the firebrick, still giving it an insulating value and help to maintain a stronger firebrick. Would appreciate any thoughts on this subject. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 Why would it be stronger than sawdust that will form charcoal upon heating? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldnumber12 Posted December 27, 2012 Author Share Posted December 27, 2012 I am assuming either sawdust or charcoal would turn to ash when heated to the higher temperatures of a forge. My thought was having smaller voids from the screened charcoal might have less impact on the structual integrety of the brick. Don't know for certain, I'm fairly new to blacksmithing and have limited knowledge of many aspects of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck in Ms Posted December 27, 2012 Share Posted December 27, 2012 What are you building with these super bricks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldnumber12 Posted December 27, 2012 Author Share Posted December 27, 2012 I'm looking to build a gas forge, nothing spectacular. Researching this site has proven to be a considerable asset, giving me alot of insight. Having not seen any reference for the substitution got my curiosity up enough to ask. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timgunn1962 Posted December 27, 2012 Share Posted December 27, 2012 Just thinking out loud really; I have a feeling that the sawdust starts off by losing steam, then thermally decomposing, before the carbon that is left after the thermal decomposition actually burns away. The water loss and thermal decomposition would seem likely to provide a certain amount of early porosity, allowing Oxygen in to burn with the Carbon. Starting with straight Carbon (charcoal), which has already done the water loss and thermal decomposition thing before being incorporated into the mix, would seem to limit the sites accessible to Oxygen to those on the surface. Obviously, the surface will burn away, so the layer underneath becomes the new surface, and so on, but I'd expect it to be very much slower than starting with sawdust. In all honesty, I'd expect it to be too slow to be viable. I'd be happy to be wrong though. If you try it and it works, please let us know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted December 27, 2012 Share Posted December 27, 2012 I wonder if the thermal cycling effects outweigh the inclusion effects. May I encourage you to make up a couple each way and expose them in the forge similarly and see how they last? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldnumber12 Posted December 28, 2012 Author Share Posted December 28, 2012 Seems to be a worthwhile experiment and I should have enough material to try it both ways, I'll post the results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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