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I've been thinking quite a bit about ways to minimize exposure to coal smoke. Even when my chimney is working well, the smoke sometimes will still linger around in a cloud (the forge is outdoors), resulting in me breathing some in. I'd also rather NOT have a nasty cloud in the backyard, given the choice. Here's my idea, as I imagine it working in a perfect world: Since my chimney is just a side draft from a tall piece of stovepipe, I could cut out a section and make a small hinged door somewhere in the middle of the chimney, and place a grate inside the pipe. Then, before lighting the coal in the forge, I could start a small wood fire on the grate in the middle of the chimney, and maintain it for the duration that I use the forge. Not only would this help with maintaining a strong draft, it would also burn off all the coal smoke that went up the chimney. Hopefully I explained that well enough to get the main points across. Now the questions: Has anyone tried anything similar to this? Would the draft of the chimney make it difficult to keep the small wood fire going? How "much" heat does it take to ignite coal smoke? Would just a small electric arc be sufficient? What about a candle? Perhaps some testing is in order. Would this be dangerous to try? I'm really interested to hear peoples thoughts about this. Thanks!

Good Morning all, I got a bag of blacksmithing coal a few weeks ago and tried it out last night. The good is my forge is out side and not under an overhang. The bad is it is low to the ground, about 2' high. I tried to stay out of the way of all the yellow smoke from the sulfur and green coal but I guess I did not do a good enough job. This morning I feel a shortness of breath but no burning or dryness I have read about. So do I need to go to the doctor where I will, no doubt get a chest x-ray, since they got to pay for the device some how, or should I see how I feel tomorrow?

Hey guys, now I finally installed the smoke flue I ordered. It is not yet 100% finished, cause it needs to be stabilized, the hole in the roof has to be made tight and the flue needs a roof. But it already does its job great! Thank you again for your good advise! Here are a few pics of the installation: If you want to built a similar installation and need some advise feel free to ask! - Daniel

Hey Folks, I´d like to ask for your advise on a project I want to start soon. My shop is half oudoors so I have a roof over the head but literally no walls. Until now I have always had my forge standing just free and hoped for good wind... But as you can imagine I take quite a lot smoke and dust and I mustn´t damage my body with stuff like that at my age. So I want to install a smoke hood over my forge. The only problem is that I only have a very limited budget of about 180$. So I guess I have to take a DIY-solution. After some research and discussions with some fellow blacksmiths I came to the conclution that this design (I know I ain´t very good at drawing...) would give me the biggest bang for my buck: This is my shop: And this is the design I´d like to try: The hood will be built from an old oil barrel, cut out on the front and bent upside to form a guiding-shield. On top of that the chimney will be installed reaching through the roof of my forge with min. 8" diameter. Would you also advise me to do it like that or do you have a solution (any construction plans) that might be more (cost)effective? I´d be very happy about any advise you give me! - Daniel