So many answers which is right?

[BrassHoarder9000]

Alright everybody this is my first post on ifi after lurking and gathering knowledge like a dog gathers fleas. The problem I've run into is sometimes there are far too many answers and trying to determine who is right or wrong or even partially right/wrong. What I am looking to find out is everyone seems to be of the general consensus that you have to rigidize ceramic blanket and while I agree with that statement I've seen a few times where folks have said they skip the rigidizer step because they are covering the blanket with refractory.  I recently bought most everything to do a forge build,  I got kast-o-lite 30, 1.5" ceramic blanket and plistex, and was wondering if I needed to get rigidizer for it or if I'll be fine coating the blanket with just the kast-o-lite? Any and all answers and opinions are welcome and appreciated thanks for sharing your knowledge with me.

[JHCC]

Not critical, but beneficial, cheap, and easy to apply. Go for it. 

[Frosty]

Welcome to the active branches Brasshoarder, glad to have you. Do you have a name, handle, etc. we may use that's easier to remember than your login? Also if you put your general location in your header you'll have a better chance of meeting up with members living within visiting distance.

While not necessary, rigidizing ceramic blanket refractory is a net plus. Laying hard castable refractory over a soft media makes it more likely crack and flake off in use. Imagine a sheet of window glass, now visualize laying it on a kitchen table and pressing down in the center. You could stand on it without breaking yes? Now lay it on a piece of foam rubber and press in the center. It breaks pretty easily. Yes?

Castable refractories are strong in compression and abrasion resistant but have almost no bridging strength. Laying it over a more rigid surface greatly extends it's lifespan.

Make sense? I can go on but I'm not going to make a video of the glass pane demonstration. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Welcome from the Ozark mountains.

Along with that, by rigidizing the blanket makes applying the castable refractory much easier.

[BrassHoarder9000]

My name is Cory, I updated my profile a wee bit more as Frosty suggested. That being said thank you guys for replying so quickly with good information.  A little reasoning behind this post is over the years I looked through various posts there are a handful of names that start sticking out to someone. Those being the like of Frosty, Wayne Coe, Mikey(whatever sequence of numbers following his name) and a few others. So most folks have suggested using the rigidizer but I could have sworn I had seen Wayne Coe mention that he doesn't bother with using because he uses castable on top of the blanket. The problem is I haven't been able to find that exact post since I first read it to try an gain some more information from it. With Wayne playing a big role on offering great information for everyone I have to respect his opinion on forge building and so this is why I had questions regarding it since so many other people say rigidizer is a necessary component of forge building. Anyways I appreciate what you gave me and I will go ahead and buy or make some rigidizer to treat the blankets for my build. I do have some other questions if anyone is so inclined to offer there advice and that is 1) how big of opening and exit do you folks personally choose to use on a propane tank diy forge. 2) I haven't decided whether I want a square interior or a D shaped interior is there any benefits to one over the other is it just personal preference? 3) Lastly when mounting the burner I read in one post to go 2 inches left or right of the top centerline of the forge but as I was scrolling through pictures looking at other folks builds I saw several with the burner smack dab in the center pointing down and the also saw several with the burner coming out at the 3 o'clock position (or 90°). I know you want to try an get a bit of a swirl from your burner if you can but wasn't sure if these alternative mounting choices are better, personal preference, or had to do with what type of work they were doing such as knife making, blacksmithing, decorative smith's....etc etc. May all your hammer arms stay strong.

[George N. M.]

Cory, I wouldn't get too caught up in what seems to be conflicting advice.  There are many ways to do a task, including building forges, and all of them are right, or at least not wrong.  So, pick one line from someone who appears to know what they are doing, go with it, build your forge, and it is very likely it will work well and you will be able to get metal hot and hit it with a hammer.

BTW, I am not a propane forge builder or guru and have absolutely no technical advice for you as to what to do or not do.

Good luck and keep us informed about how things go.  We LOVE pictures.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

We cut our openings round, using the base & top handle/guard as templates. Then made the floor flat with castable refractory and added doors out of fire brick to close up the openings when a larger opening wasn't needed.

 

[George N. M.]

My previous post about many ways to do something triggered a memory of a Rudyard Kipling poem.  Here it is.  Not strictly about blacksmithing but there are many valid approaches to a project whether it is building a propane forge or building tribal lays.  Enjoy.

IN THE NEOLITHIC AGE

In the Neolithic Age savage warfare did I wage 
  For food and fame and woolly horses' pelt.
I was singer to my clan in that dim, red Dawn of Man,
     And I sang of all we fought and feared and felt. 

Yea, I sang as now I sing, when the Prehistoric spring
  Made the piled Biscayan ice-pack split and shove;
And the troll and gnome and dwerg, and the Gods of Cliff and Berg
  Were about  me and beneath me and above. 

But a rival, of Solutré, told the tribe my style was outré—
  'Neath a tomahawk, of diorite,  he fell
And I left my views on Art, barbed and tanged, below the heart
  Of a mammothistic etcher at Grenelle. 

Then I stripped them, scalp from skull,  and my hunting-dogs fed full,
  And their teeth I threaded neatly on a thong;
And I wiped my mouth and said,  "It is well that they are dead,
  For I know  my work is right and theirs was wrong." 

But my Totem saw the shame; from his ridgepole-shrine he came,
  And he told me in a vision of the night: —
"There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays,
  "And every single one of them is right!" 
       
       


                    *          *          *         *          *  
 
     
 

Then the silence closed upon me till They put new clothing on me
  Of whiter, weaker flesh and bone more frail;         .
And I stepped beneath Time's finger, once again a tribal singer,
  And a minor poet certified by Traill! 

Still they skirmish to and fro, men my messmates on the snow
  When we headed off the aurochs turn for turn;
When the rich Allobrogenses never kept amanuenses,
  And our only plots were piled in lakes at Berne. 

Still a cultured Christian age sees us scuffle, squeak, and rage,
  Still we pinch and slap and jabber, scratch and dirk;
Still we let our business slide—as we dropped the half-dressed hide—
  To show a fellow-savage how to work. 

Still the world is wondrous large,—seven seas from marge to marge—
  And it holds a vast of various kinds of man;
And the wildest dreams of Kew are the facts of Khatmandhu
  And the crimes of Clapham chaste in Martaban. 

Here's my wisdom for your use, as I learned it when the moose
  And the reindeer roamed where Paris roars to-night:—
"There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays,
  "And—every—single—one—of—them—is—right!"