YISS

Well I got some nice charcoal, used about four golf ball sized pieces, broke the coke into dice sized lumps and covered the small charcoal fire! And they glowed up a treat. A joy to work with, especially as up until now I have been using BBQ charcoal. Far less crap on my work piece and a way more even manageable heat plus hardly any clinky crud. And of course smaller grains of fuel that i can push my work into. JOY Thanks to you r advice todays few hours at the forge resulted in two nice stick tang knife blanks, ready for a polish grind heat treat etc. Just to add, I'm not used to such an intensity of heat, I left my first piece of steel in too long (bit of 4x4 suspension coil) and the ned melted away and it started to burn, sparkling. A good omen! Im now a fan of coke, thats for sure!

Thats useful advice, sometimes I'm sure the belief it will work is a good portion of getting a job done. I have had welding temperatures (fleetingly) with charcoal so I guess its got to get that coke going, will have to get some more charcoal tommorrow. I have a feeling its going to be hot, heres hoping. Oh and again thanks!

Thanks. Just looking at the web site!

Thanks an interesting read I guess the anthracite would explain the metalic looking aspect to the coke? If I had a camera I would put up a photo!

Thanks I got it from R.J fuels in Gloucester. He weighed it out and begged it I got 10 kilos. It pretty hard stuff and seems to have an almost silver texture in places, visibly porous rather like pumice but darker well mostly black! I will have another crack at it tommorrow after getting some charcoal!

After doing more reading it appears that the coke I bought is of the Metallurgical variety, harder? Will I still be able to fire this up or does it require ridiculous temperatures?

Thanks, it makes sense that the coke will go out quickly as it is very low in actual volatile components, I'm suprised it burns at all, will the coke need topping up with charcoal every now and then or will it keep burning so long as it has air flow? It will be nice to get a little more heat, especially if it is more consistent!

Hey thanks that really helps, as does adding my location. I guessed I wasnt getting the heat but was also wondering if id just bought a bag of useless spent crud! Right charcoal first it shall be. Again many thanks!

Im a newb to forge work and have been using charcoal in a home made forge, running well enough for my present needs. I went to the local coal yard and the chap their sold me some breeze. I got it home and after many atempts at getting the coke to light I have had to give up. I basically used firelighters, loads of them under a stack of coke, whilst some of the coke went a little grey, it didnt even seem to glow. Any suggestions, does this coke even burn or is it used to just hold heat? Any help appreciated! Thanks