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Old 07-05-2008, 12:26 PM
JohnW JohnW is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Underwood, IN
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No, coal burns quite a bit hotter than charcoal. Maybe somebody can give us some numbers here, but coal burns like white hot and charcoal is like yellow hot.

The size of the fire is also usually different with coal and charcoal. Of course you can make the fire any size you want, but I believe it's easier to use coal to heat a small part of your piece so that you can work like 4" with back up heat on either side. When using charcoal, it's easy to heat a long length, like a whole bowie knife (or half) or something.
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