[Sca-cooks] Charcoal forge suggestion ;-)

[Stefan li Rous]

Phlip said:
> Thank you, Brandu, for an excellent explanation. I was avoiding going
> into
> details, because this is SCA-Cooks List, nt EKMetalsmiths ;-) but,
> since
> he'd asked, was going to go into detail, and you saved me the trouble.
Yes, thank you Brandu. Your explanation was very clear and did cause me 
to go "oh yeah. I forgot about these not being glazed". I had been 
mainly thinking of something that wouldn't burn up or melt or conduct 
the heat to what I was trying to protect below.
>
> Stefan, the reason that modern high- temp ceramics are completely
> glazed is
> to prevent moisture from wandering into the clay. A flower pot, and,
> for hat
> matter, the unglazed clay cookpots like rommertopfs are designed to
> soak up
> water and release it slowly for the benefit of the contents. That's NOT
> what
> you want happening when you're using high temperatures with melting
> metals.
See folks, we are eventually getting back to cooking. :-) The lack of 
glazing didn't occur to me. Firebricks aren't glazed.
>
> Stefan think- whattemperatures are the standard flower pots exposed
> to? And
> what temps are you getting to, to melt your pewter, whether modern
> lead-free,
> or old fasioned leaded?
Around 500 to 700 degrees F.
> And, what would happen if you poured a glass of water
> onto your melted pewter?
Not that much really. It tends to splatter but not explode. I've not 
poured water into the molten pewter, nor do I wish to but I've started 
pouring the leftover molten pewter into a pot of water which causes the 
pewter to solidify into numerous small globs which is easier to handle 
the next time around compared to the solid block that otherwise forms 
in the bottom of my melting pot. I've even done this pouring the molten 
pewter into a empty plastic soda bottle with the top cut off, filled 
with water. The plastic will get warm and distort a little bit.
>
> Drakey, DON' try this to find out!!!!!!!!!!!!
Considering it is you, Drakey, I agree totally with Phlip. Even with 
just pewter.  *Especially* don't try this with molten brass. There is 
at least one first hand account in my casting-msg file of someone 
pouring brass into a mold that had gotten a bit of moisture inside. The 
mold exploded throwing molten brass around the room and the 
individuals. There were injuries. Among the problems of heating brass 
to the point where it will melt, this is the reason I've not been in a 
rush to try casting brass.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****