Hey there

Down the street is a company called 'Mt Scott Fuel' that sells a lot of firewood, topsoil, bark dust, and even decorative landscaping stone.

Mt. Scott Fuel Co. Boring, Gresham, Sandy and Portland Bark and soil

On their website they state that they no longer carry coal, or fuel oil.......I was wondering that if enough blacksmiths request that they carry good blacksmithing coal, if they might place an order and make some available....

Has anyone succeeded in getting a company to start stocking coal for you?

I figured the best way to go about doing this is to let them know that there is a demand, and that it would quite likely be worth their while to start carrying it.


Anyways, I would like some feedback so if I do make some calls I can say with reasonable certainty that myself and 'X' number of smiths are going to purchase at least 'X' amount......


How many of you want to try to make this happen?
Have any of you already tried and were unsuccessful?


Take care

Iain

Hey Iain,

Getting a company to stock coal is going to be based on volume of sales - If Mt Scott "no longer" carries coal, it sounds like they've already decided that sales aren't strong enough to keep it in stock.

Check out the NWBA website ( Home Page ) - you may be able to connect with local smiths who can give you their sources for coal.

A lot of the Portland area smiths buy from a company in Monroe Or. for their coal. ( I can't remember the name - I'll find out and post it on this thread).

Beavercreek Farrier supply in Mollala Or used to carry coal - I haven't bought from him in years so I'm not sure if he still does.

I use primarily gas but a couple years ago a bunch of us went in on a bulk coke deal that has kept me stocked up. It turned into a good per-ton deal because we bought about 22 tons. That may be a direction you can go if you can't round up a local source.

Good luck - let us know what you come up with!

My guess is that this company used to sell coal of the heating variety back in the day, and stopped doing so when coal furnaces stopped being used so much.
If they became a reliable source, I could see them doing good business selling blacksmith coal.

Farrier supply in Beaver Creek still sells coal, and the smiths around here have told me that it is of a very inferior quality. I have burned very little coal, and don't really know good from bad, but this stuff had rocks in it, plenty of sulfur and clogged up my forge with this gooey lava stuff quite a bit.

The place in Monroe and the place in Beaver Creek sell their coal for around the same price......if the bad coal was cheaper, then it might be worth it.

If I buy coal from them, it's basically me telling them that it's okay to sell an inferior product, which will give them no reason to supply a better quality product in the future......

The place in Monroe sells (what I have been told) is an excellent quality coal, but the problem is getting enough "coal money" together to warrant making the long drive down there.

Edited September 27, 200916 yr by Brasilikilt

Do a group buy. That is what myself, and others did to get better deals on parts kits - deactivated machine guns used to make legal semi autos from, magazines, ammo, and other gun stuff. By getting anywhere from 10 to 50 or more orders together we got a huge price break on a number of items. What you would need to do is find a coal supplier, and ask them how much you would need to purchase in order to get a price break. Then get the orders put together to get the deal worked out. This works best if you can go straight to the source. With coal it would probably work best if you had it all sent bulk to one location, and had the buyers pick it up themselves. Kinda hard to do drop shipping, as it jacks the cost up, and less chance of getting a great deal.

Hey all

I called Mt Scott and the lady said that they haven't carried coal in over 40 years.....The only time they are asked is around the holidays for gag stocking stuffers :-)

She said that they simply don't have a demand for it.......

I suppose I could try the Farriers supply place in Beaver Creek to see if they would carry the good Cumberland Elk horn coal instead of that dirty stuff they carry now.......

Iain, have you tried the farrier supply place in Beaver Creek? They stock the good coal.

The old guy in Monroe had Cumberland Elkhorn a couple of years ago when I last bought a ton. I'm getting low and need to start thinking about making another run up there. It is a pain, but it's also the best Bs'ing coal we've found on the west coast. I'd be interested to hear verification that he's still selling good coal. I had heard (thread on the board here) not long after we got our coal from him that he'd retired and got out of the farrier/blacksmith supply business but that he was going to continue to sell coal. Hope that's the case.

LaGrande supply on Macadam Portland, Or.carries 2 types of mined coal bearing ferrite and silica standard unlike charcoal.

Farrier no longer carries it.

Since this thread is resurrected. The current person for coal in Portland Oregon is Jim VonMosch of Mountainbrook forge. NWBA board of directors. Arnon Kartmazov keeps some of his in stock locally for if you want to pick it up in Portland. Arrange payment with Jim and pickup from Arnon.

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