What brand rigidizer should I use?

[Relex]

Hello there! I'm currently planning to build myself a forge and have trouble to find a rigidizer, I live in germany and every translation I tried didn't give me good results, so I wanted to ask you if you have any recommodations for what brand I should use. I plan to cover my 1400°C ceramic wool with 1600°C fireproof cement but want to safe my lungs incase it cracks. Thanks in advance!

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard Relex, glad to have you, if you put your general location in the header you'll have a much better chance of meeting with members living within visiting distance.

I can't tell you what commercial rigidizers are available to you. That is where members in Germany knowing where you are comes in really handy. Mentioning it once in one post won't stick in anybody's mind once we open the next post.

I have a couple suggestions, First is to contact a ceramics / pottery supply store, if they don't carry it they will know who does. 

Second is make it yourself with "Fumed" silica which is silica particles so fine they are colloidal, they remain suspended in water when mixed. I found it at a plastics and fiberglass supply here, fumed silica is used as a thickener in fiberglass resin to prevent it from running or dripping. 

Mix fumed silica with clean fresh water and a drop or two of food coloring. The food coloring makes it visible on the ceramic refractory blanket so you don't miss anything. Don't mix it too thick because you want to be able to spray it through a stray bottle / spritzer. You want 2 spritzers to apply it, first you want to wet the blanket down so the rigidizer mix doesn't flash dry on contact with the blanket, You want it to flow along the fibers so it reaches everything in the surface centimeter or two and concentrate where fibers cross. Be generous it's hard to overdo this rigidizer.

Once it's reasonably dry heat it up with the forge burner to red heat and cure it. Curing the rigidizer melts it and fuses fibers together so none can break free and float around your breathing air.

It also makes applying a castable refractory easier because the blanket is more rigid so the refractory is easier to spread.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Welcome from the Ozark Mountains USA.

Not much to add since Frosty has covered it very well. By putting your general location in your profile, it will show up with every post. We have many members located in Germany, never know some may be near enough to visit and lend a helping hand.

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