I've had next to no luck trying to find some local coal over here in Oregon, more specifically the Portland area. I've been buying my coal online for at least a dollar a pound! And it's really killing my wallet. Sure I can use lump charcoal for most things but it produces quite a bit of flaming debris, and getting a good forge weld is next to impossible. I've called every stove shop around and they've all stopped carrying, and yes I've called valley farrier (stopped stocking), mountain brook forge (haven't picked up phones in 2 weeks, sucks because they seemed like a real good option), central fuel in up in Chehalis (stopped stocking). I've heard of somebody down in Monroe that sells coal, but haven't got a phone number, nor do I know if he still does it. Ive made really sure to dig through all the forums and old threads before I started this one, I used the iforge iron function and the google :iforgeiron function. So can somebody help me either.....
A- learn to somehow forge weld with charcoal?
B- Find coal locally for a good price
C- Give up and move to a gas forge?
ps- I'm 18 years old and I'm trying to get into blacksmithing, none of my friends are interested which doesn't really bug me, I like blacksmithing because it's of the old world anyways. So I'd really to find some friends to forge with
-Jonas