Dave The Great

I know this is an old thread, but I want to give a tip in case people stumble across this. In Portland, there is a restaurant supply chain of stores called Cash & Carry, and they sell 50# bags of mesquite charcoal. I have been using it for years for light smithwork. It's really cheap, always in stock and as an added bonus you can put a grill over your forge and cook steaks (provided you haven't been working with volatile metals or fluxes, obviously). Smiths used charcoal for many centuries; it's a bit colder than fossil coal and burns faster but it is suitable. These are not briquettes, these are chunks of tree. The only real downside is that it comes in big chunks, so when I buy it I have to spend an afternoon smashing it into suitable pieces with a wooden mallet. It creates a significant amount of dust and there is some waste, but overall it's worked well for me. It's about $14-$18 a bag right now (October 2013)