I just… don’t get it… The bricks have moisture from being soaked before installation, sure. But that moisture got in through nothing more than gravity and capillary action, why does it need 6 days of fire to get out? They’re bone dry before I even start curing fire #1.
The mortar has added water, but it’s a portland cement based mortar. That water gets consumed in the hydration of the portland cement. There’s nothing left to remove. Besides, it’s portland cement, i don’t need to light a fire on my sidewalk for 6 days (I know, I know, my sidewalk doesnt see flames; twas a joke).
Even with most refractory castables that I use in my forge furnace, a simple slow cure to as hot as you can get it will get everything done in one day. And those are castables with calcium aluminate cements that actually dehydrate at high temperatures and have a buttload more water than a mortar. What’s happening on day two, three, four, five and six that’s not happening on day one?
It just seems… unnecessarily complicated for absolutely no purpose.