I think
the answer is in the forth
video after the casting the chap pokes near the pattern and it falls apart. In the second video it is "hard as brick" but they are using epoxy to stick the sand because hard things tend to break easily as they are not ductile. The ductility here comes from the epoxy which I would think would combust in the
rocket mass heater. If you could replace that with some else like a e.g high temperature silicone? maybe it would work.
Interesting videos though.