Magma Bricks

Brekund Glinteye Has A Dream

Brekund Glinteye, creator of the only forge that burns as hot as the magma forges of the fire giants, wanted to turn the monstrous axe his grandfather had taken as a trophy from the fire giant into proper dwarf sized weapons. It took less metal to make a sword and there was enough in the giant's Veriduun axe to make three swords, giving him three attempts to perfect his techniques. But to do that, he needed his forge to get as hot as a magma forge, and no dwarves could work inside a living volcano.
Brekund had to craft a special fuel that he, being a dwarf and not a fire giant immune to the heat of magma, could safely handle yet burn hot. It took him three years and the drinking of many kegs of Goldkeg Ale, his families finest and most profitable brew, before he managed to make the first magma brink.

Brekund Experiments

Most forges burned char wood, the part of the wood in a fire that is burned black but not into ash. This char wood, when burned again, burns much hotter, and even hotter yet when bellows blow fresh air through the burning coals. This is hot enough to work the strongest steel, but nowhere near hot enough to work veriduun.
He realized he had to find a way to make charwood burn even hotter. This led to him to adding brimstone to his forge. This helped but still was not enough. So, he added a bit of saltpeter to the brimstone and, boy, was there one hot flash! How to turn that flash into a slower burn was his problem in need of solving. Brekund eventually realized that he needed to grind up charwood and mix some saltpeter and brimstone into it.

Finally, the Bricks

This new black sand-like powder burned very hot when tossed into a flame. Unfortunately, the powder burned itself up too fast to sustain the very high heat he wanted in his forge. After much thought, and downing another keg of Goldkeg Ale, he had a solution. Soak the powder in water then press it into bricks. Once the bricks completely dried, they would burn as hot as before. The bricks took longer to burn, providing the consistently higher temperatures he needed. This called for celebration!