Soft fire bricks in the Dallas area?

N.N

N.N

Well-Known Member
I need some soft fire bricks. They don't have them in my home town. I'm in Dallas at the moment though. Anybody happen know if there's anywhere around here that sells them?
 
nother question if anyone has the time. The hole at the front top of the 2 brick forge for the torch to be inserted so that the flame isn't directly on but creates the swirl inside the brick seems to be the standard.

Does this have to be at the front? or does it work better at the back? With it at the front blowing to back seems like it would keep your hands and knife tang away from the heat a bit...but is this the only reason for front to back?
 
I don't have anywhere locally for firebricks either. I ended up ordering 3 from High Temperature tools. With the flat rate shipping it was about the best price I could find delivered.
http://www.hightemptools.com/firebricks.html

Just my two cents, i'm been using a two brick forge for a couple months, so I'm no expert, but I've had pretty good luck. The hole on my 2-brick is about a 1/4 of the way back from the front and on the bottom of the chamber so it swirls under the blade and then up around the cavity. If I'm treating a short enough blade I usually have another fire brick covering the opening on the back of the forge to hold more heat in.
No matter what you do the hottest place in forge is going to be where the flame enters the cavity. With that in mind I move my blades around a lot during heat treat to get it even across the full blade. By having the inlet hole closer to the front of the forge you can pass the whole blade past it consistently. If it was in the back I wonder if you would have issues with the tip getting to temperature before the rest of the blade comes to temp. Just my thoughts.

-Aaron
 
aelgin said:
I don't have anywhere locally for firebricks either. I ended up ordering 3 from High Temperature tools. With the flat rate shipping it was about the best price I could find delivered.
http://www.hightemptools.com/firebricks.html

Just my two cents, i'm been using a two brick forge for a couple months, so I'm no expert, but I've had pretty good luck. The hole on my 2-brick is about a 1/4 of the way back from the front and on the bottom of the chamber so it swirls under the blade and then up around the cavity. If I'm treating a short enough blade I usually have another fire brick covering the opening on the back of the forge to hold more heat in.
No matter what you do the hottest place in forge is going to be where the flame enters the cavity. With that in mind I move my blades around a lot during heat treat to get it even across the full blade. By having the inlet hole closer to the front of the forge you can pass the whole blade past it consistently. If it was in the back I wonder if you would have issues with the tip getting to temperature before the rest of the blade comes to temp. Just my thoughts.

-Aaron
Click to expand...

Aaron,
Generally the tip is the thinnest part of the blade so it is usually the 1st
to come up to temp. That is provided the entire chamber is at temp., I would
ONLY use this method with the simplest HC steels in the 10XX SERIES,like
1084, and those below it, 1080, 1075, 1070, etc.

Do keep in mind, that when you HT this way, that you MUST GET THE ENTIRE
BLADE TO THE DESIRED TEMP!
2.) The motion you use when quenching is vital, you want to put the entire blade in the
fast quench oil as quickly (and safely) as possible, then aggitate. This is the most critical
part of the quench, as you ONLY want to move the blade in a back and forth motion.
NEVER SIDE TO SIDE! The wayI do it, I emmerse the entire blade once I pull it out
of the kiln, I go straight to the oil, if yoh don't put the knife all the way in the oil,
YOU WILL HAVE A FLAME UP, now this isn't a major deal, unless you do it all
the time, your oil will not last very long,now once in the oil, I pay close attention to
how the boade is in the oil and how I agitate the blade back and forth, while I am counting
(usually) OUT LOUD! That way no one will try to talk to me, and I count just like this,
1, and 2, and 3, and... all the way to 30, even a bigger blade should be cool enough to touch
but DONT UNTIL YOU ARE SURE ITS COOL ENOUGH!

HOPE THIS HELPS,
Rex
 
Question: What's the best way of cutting a 1" half hole (to make a 2 inch whole when they're stacked) in each of these for the main chamber? at first I figured I would put them together and use a 2 inch hole saw with the drill press right down the middle. Then I realized not only is the hole saw not deep enough but the drill press probably won't go that deep. I'd have to chip out the middle every 2 inches of depth that I drill....is that how you guys have done it? Then I looked into a 2" spade bit and realized that nobody makes a 2" spade bit. Now I'm left kinda scratching my head trying to think of the best way to do it. Maybe some pvc pipe with sandpaper wrapped around and slowly sand to the depth. You have any ideas?
 
N.N said:
Question: What's the best way of cutting a 1" half hole (to make a 2 inch whole when they're stacked) in each of these for the main chamber? at first I figured I would put them together and use a 2 inch hole saw with the drill press right down the middle. Then I realized not only is the hole saw not deep enough but the drill press probably won't go that deep. I'd have to chip out the middle every 2 inches of depth that I drill....is that how you guys have done it? Then I looked into a 2" spade bit and realized that nobody makes a 2" spade bit. Now I'm left kinda scratching my head trying to think of the best way to do it. Maybe some pvc pipe with sandpaper wrapped around and slowly sand to the depth. You have any ideas?
Click to expand...

So are you talking about the firebrick, you have to be carefully when drilling the firebrick, primarily with FB, all ya got to do is get a hole started, then take a rasp to it,
the rasp will remove material very quickly and very easily, make sure you form the hole to match the hole you need, if that's what you're talking about that's the way to do it, if you'tr taking about something else, please clarify!

If that's what you're talking about, talking about a 2" hole is prolly too big, what is your torch size?
Rex
BTW, The PVC pipe with sandpaper wrapped around it, (to the appropriate size), is a genius idea!
 
I used a 2" sanding drum on a cordless drill. Made a heck of a mess but it cuts like butter and you can maintain the round shape pretty easily.

Mine has a 2" diameter chamber and it tapers down on the ends to about 1 1/2". My theory was that the tapered ends would hold the heat in better. Again it was just a theory but it works for me.


-Aaron
 
Rex,
I don't have anyway to monitor the exact temp in my mini forge. I go mostly by color and magnet. I know mine doesn't heat perfectly even and i cant set it to the desired temp and just leave it in place to bring it up to where I want it. Because of that I try to get the thicker portions a little more heat at first then bring the rest of the blade up to temp so it all goes though the phase change simultaneously. Its a crude method but like you said it works on simple HC steels. Someday I'll splurge for a real heat treat oven.

Thanks
-Aaron
 
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