[TheForge] Fire Clay

[Wesley Marquart]

Hi Earl,

Paul beat me to the punch I guess...

I have an old cast forge which I use as my 'permanent' one in the shop.  A
few years back I was on a search for fire clay myself when I noticed one of
my neighbors digging a new basement with a back hoe... he happened to hit a
pocket of nice blue/white ground clay in the process... I ran home stuck
four 5 gal buckets in the trunk and went over and asked him for some.  I was
told take all you want... He figured that it would be too much of a problem
to try and landscape that all into hi syard.

I took it home and rammed it into the forge with a 6" stub of 2x4 and a 2#
hammer... it compacted in real well and has held up.  Needless to say you
need to let it dry for a week or so before you light your first fire on it.
Do a small one first to finish 'baking' it in then you should be good to go.

Wes/William the Tinker

Btw: the reason I tamped the clay in that way was to make sure there were no
voids... 

-----Original Message-----
From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Paul
Sent: Wednesday, June 03, 2009 8:07 PM
To: Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Fire Clay

egilsson-9 at comcast.net wrote:
> Hello The Forge members, 
>snip< 

> I have a question. Where can I obtain fire clay? I have a small portable
Farrier's forge that needs lining. I live in Western Massachusetts and when
I contacted a local farm supply store was told that fire clay is not
available in Mass. Is there another product that I could use without
breaking the bank? 
> I am new to blacksmithing, I've only taken a beginner's course, so any
help would be greatly appreciated! 
> 
> Thanks in advance, 
> Earl Schacht 

  Hi Earl
    I have a small rivet forge that I lined years ago with clay that I 
got from a trench that was excavated on a job that I was working on. 
Found a seam of clay about 3 feet below grade. It was sort of swamp clay 
without the rotting vegetative matter.
    I guess the upshot is that I found a fire clay substitute, I don't 
think that you have to match any complicated specifications for lining a 
forge. As long as you aren't bouncing the forge all over the place, 
thereby cracking the dry clay into small bits, it will be strong enough 
do the job. The purpose the clay serves is to stop the coke from burning 
directly against the thin cast iron forge  bottom.
    Once you line the forge let it air dry before starting a fire in it. 
The less water that it has the better.
If the clay seems to melt (indicating to much sand in the mix) you might 
try a layer of furnace cement to protect the clay. The clay is a lot 
cheaper (free) than the furnace cement.
Have fun, keep your gloves dry and the burn ointment handy...

-- 
Paul Sperbeck  WB9HCO

  "The difference between genius and stupidity is that
genius has its limits." -Albert Einstein
"Life is hard...it's harder if you're stupid" John Wayne - Sands of Iwo Jima
"We started off trying to set up a small anarchist community, but people
wouldn't obey the rules." -- Alan Bennett

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