billp Posted May 18, 2010 Share Posted May 18, 2010 As I mentioned in another pose about buying Tenn. coal I just got 16, 5 gal. buckets of coal from a gentleman who used it to heat a shop and another building. I have only made one fire with this coal which seems to be good coal compared to a batch I got from New Jersey. Only problem is the majority of it is in large chuncks and have to be broken up creating a lot of dust. When I made my fire I did not try to remove the dust which did I feel help get the fire going very fast but also produced a large number of fire fles, kind of annoying when wairing a sleeveless shirt. I spent quite some time sifting through 20 gals of coal to get 4 gals of dust. My question is what can I do with the dust? I believe it will make a great fire starter, but is there any thing else I can do with it? Like the other post about Tenn. coal it is hard to find and I would prefer to use coal but may have to go to gas which is easy to get but not very cheep. Any way if anyone has any ideas about how to use the dust please let me know, Thanks Bill P PS please forgive any miss spelled words my checker does not seem to be working Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Thompson Posted May 18, 2010 Share Posted May 18, 2010 Be careful with it; it's explosive if it blows about in a cloud. I don't think there's any smithing use for it, although I'd be tempted to try packing some into a box with a bit of MS and baking it to see if it case hardens. It's useful for banking up a house fire if you want to go out for a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweany Posted May 18, 2010 Share Posted May 18, 2010 wet it down, add to fire Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John B Posted May 18, 2010 Share Posted May 18, 2010 As I mentioned in another pose about buying Tenn. coal I just got 16, 5 gal. buckets of coal from a gentleman who used it to heat a shop and another building. I have only made one fire with this coal which seems to be good coal compared to a batch I got from New Jersey. Only problem is the majority of it is in large chuncks and have to be broken up creating a lot of dust. When I made my fire I did not try to remove the dust which did I feel help get the fire going very fast but also produced a large number of fire fles, kind of annoying when wairing a sleeveless shirt. I spent quite some time sifting through 20 gals of coal to get 4 gals of dust. My question is what can I do with the dust? I believe it will make a great fire starter, but is there any thing else I can do with it? Like the other post about Tenn. coal it is hard to find and I would prefer to use coal but may have to go to gas which is easy to get but not very cheep. Any way if anyone has any ideas about how to use the dust please let me know, Thanks Bill P PS please forgive any miss spelled words my checker does not seem to be working How fine is "the dust" ? And how are you breaking the large chunks down to give you the dust.? Do you really need to break it down as small as you are doing? If you are getting 'fireflies', perhaps you are pushing too much air through your fire. Damping the coal may help, both before breaking it down, and when in use in the forge (you could possibly make it into small bricquettes if you wet it, compress it and let it dry out some) Its all speculation from a distance, but I hope some of it may help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
son_of_bluegrass Posted May 18, 2010 Share Posted May 18, 2010 Mix the dust with water to form a slurry. You can use the slurry to bank a fire or to create an "oven" of sorts by putting it on top of the fire after you get it going. The dust will adhere forming larger pieces as it cokes off. It doesn't work quite the same as coal chunks but a useable fire can be made with it. ron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted May 18, 2010 Share Posted May 18, 2010 Dust is pretty much what we get for coal out here. We keep it in a bucket of water and add it by the shovelful to a going fire to coke up into larger chunks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P. Bedard Posted May 18, 2010 Share Posted May 18, 2010 It's been said before, but it bears repeating; Soak it in water and spread it like "mud" over your fire (I usually make a volcano kind of wall around my tuyere). Works great and as it heats, it makes decent coke and heat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irontwister Posted May 20, 2010 Share Posted May 20, 2010 wet it , compress it, burnit still wet. she'll coke up nicely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junksmith Posted May 20, 2010 Share Posted May 20, 2010 Yep... Bank it around the fire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billp Posted May 21, 2010 Author Share Posted May 21, 2010 OK first the chuncks are any where from baseball size to 6 to 8 inches long to 3 or 4 inches wide and 1 to 3 inches thick. i have been useing a hand sledge hammer to just wack the heck out of them in a heavy wood box. it will make a number of very small chips 1/16 to 1/4 in size along with dust. I have been using pieces as large as a tennes ball to golf ball size to make my fire and it did OK mixing in as much small stuff as I could. I'll defently try mixing the dust with water for coal mud balls even coating the fire pile sounds like a winner. Thank you all for your input I never would have thought of it myself thanks again BillP spell checker still not work sorry if there are to many that's why I'm better with my hands then in my writing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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