Brick over blanket question

[mullikinmaple]

I have been haunting the pages of Maple Trader for a couple of years but have never posted. Great site with a wealth of info. I have a question regarding bricking over fire blanket. I have a Leader 2x6 drop flue and decided to pull all bricks out and add one inch ceramic blanket. The arch was bricked with full bricks. They came out pretty easy and I can reuse them. Now that I have the blanket in, I'm afraid I will loose a lot of width if I put full bricks back in. The drop flue pan will fit in but it is tight. Given I have added a lot of insulation, would it make more sense to rebrick with half bricks, particularly under flue pan. I plan to put full bricks back in firebox area but maybe halves would be good there as well to regain some width. I would appreciate any and all advice. I do plan to try a small blower (265 cfm) this year but may not use it for every boil. Depends on how it works. Thanks a lot.

[psparr]

We're there bricks under the flue pan? Blanket would be enough back there.

The back of the firebox where it will take a beating from throwing in wood might benefit from fulls. Hope that helps some
And welcome to the "Trader"!

[mullikinmaple]

There were bricks on the side of the arch under flue pan but not on floor. I previously had sand covering that area.

[motowbrowne]

Other than the firebox, there's no need for brick anywhere else. Use whatever other material (more ceramic, vermiculite, sand) you'd like on top of your layer of insulation to fill up the right spaces in the rest of the arch.