Ok I know this has had to be brought up many times. I failed finding this topic on the search engine so I posted here. There are tons 

of YouTube ricipe,s for making fire bricks. Many work & many fail. Seems like the ones that work fall apart after a few fires. Is there 

truly one that will work over a reasonable time or is this a blacksmiths just a blacksmiths dream?  Fly

 

 

 

Making them from a castable refractory like kastoliite is the best choice. Old school furnace liners were made from clay, sand and water glass. Some added charcoal to the mix to provide insulation. 
best bet is to just order K26 bricks and be done with it. 

I agree

Ya I think your spot on Charles. The only reason in making our own would be to save a buck. I think it would not

 Think there would be enough cost saving to mess with it. And even that they most likely would not hold up as 

well. I just thought I would throw that question out there & see what guys as you would say. Thanks for the reply. 
 

I can now put that to bed. Fly

Making your own would probably cost MORE than buying them; blacksmiths used to buy them you know...(Just making a proper kiln to fire fire brick would cost more than buying a pallet of them!)

We have the kilns and clay to make our own. However when you figure in time and the cost of electricity to fire them to cone 10 (2300° F) it's not worth making them.

I had to take economics classes at 3 universities so far; "Economies of Scale" is fairly well pounded into my skull.

If you brushed your skull before pounding scale wouldn't embed. 

"Dirty Jobs" had an episode about making brick including fire brick. Fire brick spent a lot longer in the mixer and was pressed in the mold, not just pressed into it but hard pressed in the molds. Pressing was the secret to durable fire brick according to the answers to one of Mikes questions.

A person could use a hydraulic press but I don't know how significant the long mixing and wedging is to doing it right. 

WAY cheaper to buy them. Don't go to the big box store, call around sand and gravel or masonry suppliers, the price difference is big. IIRC 1980s prices, $2.00 ea. at the building supply and about $0.25 ea. at AK Sand and Gravel. I bought a case which knocked a nickel each off. The guy who loaded it in my pickup loaded a case that had been dropped gratis, calling it unsellable trash.

It helps if you're a likable BSer. 

Frosty The Lucky.