Salamander Crucible A40 Super A Clay Graphite by Morgan

These are some of the best crucibles you can buy and if you’re doing iron (even though they’re explicitly not recommended for this), they are pretty much the only crucibles up to the task. With gray iron, I get 15-20 melts out of these before they thin too much to be safely used (a personal judgement call). With brass/bronze, probably closer to 40-45 and with aluminum, if you don’t beat them up physically and take care of them (don’t aim your burner directly at (normal to) the side) you could probably get 100 melts or more. Silicon carbide crucibles are excellent for aluminum too and are a little more thermally conductive, but these work great. JETS are some of the only people who carry the size A40, which is a great size for doing a 2 man pour. We regularly (every week) melt 60 pounds of iron and have done up to about 85 pounds (you never want to pour BRIM full). The A16 is about as much iron or brass that I can handle by myself with a single-ended pouring shank, but still has a fair amount of metal. You will struggle to melt iron in a naturally aspirated propane furnace, but a furnace with a blower, or ideally a liquid fired furnace that can handle the 3,000 degree heat will work (Mizzou+ or Kast-O-Lite 30 refractory or some sort of refractory ceramic fiber wool (e.g. 2600 degree kaowool with some Greenpatch 421 hotface)). Again- these are not your cheap Chinese quality Temu/Vevor crucibles and they are priced accordingly. JETS packages even the big ones very well for shipping. Don’t be fooled by the fact that they are made in India. They (Morgan MMS) make them (other crucible lines) in Germany too- they are all ISO 9001/12001 certified. Highly recommend if you want the best and can afford it.