old brick forge?

hey all, I’m trying to build my own forge so like you I can create tools and other metal nic naks. My question is about the construction. I’ve got a stack of old house bricks that I was thinking I could stack into an oven shape and line the inside with fire clay. Is there any danger of the bricks exploding? or any other flaw in doing this?
I’d like to keep the whole process as traditional as possible, so no gas on this one. I plan on buying fire bricks to build a larger more permanent forge, once I’ve moved house. But for now just enough to make a knife or a chisel(I’m a carpenter). I’m a new born smith yet to strike metal so any help is a massive favor.
Thanks for reading.

Hi Bearcub, I’m new here as well as to the whole blacksmith thing, but this is a very quiet site so I’ll chat with you on the subject and maybe somebody with some skills will join in.

From what I’ve read so far you should have very little problem with heat causing your bricks to explode or anything, just as long as they are isolated from the fire with gravel and sand. Keep in mind that heat rises so if your brick form is all below the fire they will be subjected to reasonably low heat. The best basic shape for your brick form appears to be a V shaped trough with a forced air source located in the bottom of the V.

Recently watched a forged in fire episode where a contestant used a forge fabricated from an old satellite dish and a hair drier lol if that can be made to work and apparently it did, almost anything could work. Also have recently seen some forge plans made from used air tanks cut in half and mounted on top a wood frame, so that further reinforces the heat rises concept.

Closest first hand experience I have with intense fire is making Maple Syrup the old fashion way. I generally build a firebox surround using 6" solid concrete blocks and those withstand a significant direct heat for ~3 years before they start to fall apart.

Hope this helps some.

Thanks for the feedback mate. any helps good help. I’ll upload a pic of what I’m thinking later, once I’ve stacked the bricks. There probably wont be to much metal in the fire its more for practicing mastering the fire in a similar forge to what I’ll eventually have.

:slight_smile: Cool! I look forward to seeing it. Here’s a pic of my Maple Syrup production:

BTW: what kind of bear cubs do they have in Australia? Anything bigger then a Koala Bear?