A co-worker offered the following function for floor pits in a
blacksmith shop based on his salad days in the Ozarks.
 
 
Lawrence L. Ayres
04/28/97 01:32 PM
Subject: Re: (Fwd) Blacksmith shop floor pits
 
For pre-heating to speed up the actual process.  The pit wouldn't
get as hot as the forge, but the other common method
was to set the piece in an out of the way part of the forge.
This wouldn't work if you had a small forge or large pieces.
 
 
Seems like this ideal might be extended to provide an insulated
area (ashes?) for slower cooling or a parking area to hold hot
objects within a batch or between stages.
 
James Harcourt
"Agency Archaeologist"