i finally got my coal forge up and running and i'm finding that i've got a lot of waste that i'm not really sure what to do with. Any ideas about what to do with the wastes from a coal forge would be helpful and i'm wondering if i can just put in th trash or there is a special place i need to take it to.

any help is appreciated.

Coal ash/clinkers being the question.

I tend to save them for winter time. I spread them on the ice/snow on the driveway. The grit makes for great traction.

Some people like them for controlling weeds/grasses around trees and shrubs. Bugs and crawlers also don't much like the sharp edges on the ash/clinkers.

And they make for pretty good drainage "rubble" along foundations and walls.

But many places want you to treat them like toxic waste - hard/heavy metals and concentrated chemicals. Just look at what the coal-fired electric plants go through with their "fly ash". But most of that is because of the quantities they have to deal with.

The sound advice would be to check with your local ordinances and waste removal company. Some have rules/guidelines, some do not. But the moment you ask about it, you will probably then be monitored for it - and for HOW you are generating it. Could complicate things.

But out here in the countryside, we just use coal ash/clinkers on the ice/snow during winter. Ditto the wood stove ashes - which we prefer and actually work better on ice.

Just a few humble thoughts to share. Take them as such.

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

A bucket of ash is good for annealing metal in as it is a good insulator. Lumps of clinker can become "dragon manure or hairballs" and another guy I forge with take warhammer and the like miniatures and make little scenes out of the lumps.

thanks for the help guys...

i'll check with the local requirements mike. and i'll deffidently look into that dragon manure easilyconfused

at our meetings here we generate a bit of waste, It is adding to the content of my driveway gravel, works great!

Crushed and added to a dirt floor, sprinkle with water and compact it. Beware workshop roof may become lower after some years.
Used to work in a foundry where the floor had to be excavated periodically to bring furnaces back to a reasonable working height

I've heard of a few smiths selling clinker at demos as dragon droppings...

My dog eats them. I need to shorten his leash. I guess he'll figure it out on his own.

maybe its to get the last of the hairball from the last cat fido ate :rolleyes:

I dump the ash and clinkers on the dirt floor of my forge shop and break up the big lumps with a heavy tamping bar. Combined with the scale and oil off the hammers , it makes a good floor, easy on the feet and legs over a long day. I usually rake it smooth and level at least once a week.
I also had a dog that liked to eat the clinkers, sometime it would stand up on it's hind legs to pull them out of the forge. It never did try it when the fire was burning , however.

I'm with JohnB and SGropp.; clinkers etc make excellent flooring material.

Glad mine is not the only dog that eats them...

People really buy them??

I put mine in a pile on the corner of my property, once the pile gets big enough, and I get the ambition, I will either build a cupola using the clinker as part of the refractory or in post holes under my shop to true it up.....

In spite of all the studies that indicate that virtually everything is hazardous, I feel that using ash/cinders for gravel or 'fill' is probably safe.
When I went to elementary school, we had a coal furnace for heat. There was always a big pile of cinders out back of the school.
No one thought about them being 'hazardous'.........of course that was the '60's.......and pre EPA days.....

One thing I have noticed over the years is that walnut trees and raspberries seem to thrive around old piles of coal and ash dumps........( perhaps that's caused by sulpher or phosphates in the coal/ash.....acting as fertlizer.)

One thing I have noticed over the years is that walnut trees and raspberries seem to thrive around old piles of coal and ash dumps........( perhaps that's caused by sulpher or phosphates in the coal/ash.....acting as fertlizer.)

I'm not surprised. Fires were natures way of resetting an area for new growth again. I've always wondered about using a small amount of ash in the soil to help fertilize. Unfortunately, many plants can tolerate and incorporate many toxic substances that would, and sometimes does, kill us. That being said, I don't feel like ash from a coal fire is very toxic past the inhalation issues and the release of gasses either if properly spread out again. I'm not a chemical engineer or toxicologist though.

Our ash usually goes along buildings to chock out the stinging nettles and into the lagoon to help keep odors down like with straw. Not that there is enough to do too much there.....

Edited April 28, 200917 yr by easilyconfused

Jayco,

My High school's track surface was all clinker from a coal burner. Ugly scars if you fell at speed. Of course I grew up in strip mine coal country so what else was there to do with it. It was the 70s and country area so the EPA didn't know we existed.

Brian