Fuel?????

[Flop]

I remember reading not to long ago that someone on here was using wood as fuel instead of coal or gas, just got me to thinking what the advantages/disadvantages were of it, as I've never heard of it done before. Any kind of wood in particular and special process involved. Just curious.

[Glenn]

I used wood in the Supercharged 55 Forge just to see if it would work. It works.

The raw wood was best in chunks the size of a 2x4 about 4-6 inches long worked best, but anything about 2 inches diameter and 6-10 inches long worked. It took a good bit of wood and the radiant heat was an issue to deal with, but you can forge with wood as it makes it's own charcoal the same as coal makes it's own coke.

[Mlmartin15]

ive seen how people use corn, will some one elaborate on this. im assuming that it is simply dried corn from a feed store?

[matt87]

I've read (on here) of people using olive pips and dried herbivore dung. Makes sense I guess; nothing special about charcoal etc. (I use charcoal.) Various oils are useable too (with a suitable burner).

[jayco]

Originally Posted by Mlmartin15

ive seen how people use corn, will some one elaborate on this. im assuming that it is simply dried corn from a feed store?

Both IRNSRGN and Coalforge have pics in the Gallery of using corn as forge fuel.

Search term: corn forge

[Mlmartin15]

have seen that good pictures, i think ill just buy a big sack of corn and try it

[Flop]

Never heard of the corn thing, I might have to try that as well.

[ApprenticeMan]

Flop, when you burn wood to smith, you are really burning the wood into charcoal, then burning the charcoal to smith with. Works great!

[Flop]

Cool deal, not a whole lot of places around here that I'm aware of to get good quality coal, thought about just using some real hardwood charcoal just for messing around. That should work just fine.

[ApprenticeMan]

It's been used for thousands of years, charcoal was in fact the very first, and longest used fuel for blacksmith's and bladesmiths.