Okay, I`ve been building me a new gas forge and have 1" inch of inswol , then 1" of castable refactory on it. And I freind of mine was talking about getting ITC 100 to lightly coat the castable refactory , is there any big advatanges of doing this besides making it smooth?
Chris
PS should have pics of this new gasser soon.

it reflects the heat better than castable refractory from what ive heard .. ive not used refractory just itc and it hardens fairly hard but dosnt take long to heat up forge...just my obervations ... good luck

ITC-100, ITC-200, ITC-213 Ceramic Coatings

ITC-100 is a black body IR reflector meaning it reflects heat back into the forge at high temperature.

You've seen pics of my variable volume forge. When I was testing burner mounts and such I fired it off many times but hadn't coated anything with ITC-100. After I coated it heat up time was about 25% what it was without.

It's also somewhat resistant to welding flux.

I recommend it, if you can afford it it'll pay for itself pretty quickly.

Frosty

It's cheaper than the insowool or kaowool. Will make your forge hotter and save you on gas.

I will add my support for ITC. My WhisperBaby heats faster and more uniform than before I coated it. It still won't reach welding heat, though.

from what i'v read it is a good UV reflector. And is usuly used to coat the wool. makes it last longer and will keep the wool out of your lungs which is a good thing. it also makes a hard coating on your wool. don't forget to use a kiln shelf or fire brick on the bottom to keep your flux from eating away at your refractory.

ITC-100 is a black body IR reflector, not UV. A forge doesn't produce a significant amount of UV in any case.

ITC-100 is not intended as s blanket stabilizer though it's better than nothing.

It is interestingly enough pretty resistant to flux.

Frosty