advice on forge building

[TroyH]

Ok, I want to build a small forge and money is tight.  Locally I can find 1" fire brick (hard kind) pretty cheap.  If I get refractory mortar and put 2 - 1" bricks together, I could still get out cheaper than ordering 2.5" bricks.  My question is, would that work as well, or would there be some reason that it wouldn't work?
Thanks

[Lin Rhea]

Troy,
       The way you are will work, but I believe it will not be very efficient or durable compared to something else just as easy.

If I was making a starter forge, I would find a piece of pipe, square or round, and line it with Insowool or Kaowool and stack soft firebrick in the back and where needed in the front allowing space for a door. If aquiring a pipe is out of the question, I would still use the soft brick and stick it with furnace cement or just stack them dry. The hard brick work, seem to crack a lot to me.

I saw where someone made a coffee can forge. You might do a search and find it. Lin

[Montauks]

Troy although I could use a larger one now, this "forge" i made from a 48oz coffee can, 1 kiln brick and mud from my backyard, also 1 propane with wide nozzle, and a bag of vermiculite
for normalizing.
     
The kiln brick is very soft and brittle in fact I bought 2 or 3 just in case, I drilled a hole down the middle then used a hand held sheetrock saw to open it up
     
   
I finished this knife the other day...BTW I found the kiln brick at a ceramic supply house and  vermiculite at a garden center.
Good luck, Gene