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I'm almost out of coal. The only place withing 200+ miles of me that has coal is the power plant, its extremly soft bituminous coal. Should I go out there and talk to the silo master, or order it by the bag from Centaur? (My areas north central Texas 76384)

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Theres a blacksmith shop in Grapevine, he'd probably sell you some coal, if not search Houston Area Blacksmiths Association, go to the "coal bin" page, you can buy a 2,000 bulk sack of forge coke at Walton Terminals. (In Houston, its the cheapest I've found)

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I'm in Fort Worth and need some coal or lump charcoal, too. Let me know if you get some. The cheapest stuff I can find is lump charcoal at like $1/pound.


Howdy from East TEXAS!! and welcome to IFI! There is blacksmith coal maybe 10 miles from you, depending on where you live in Ft. Worth! It's in Kennedale, TX . Good coal and the last I purchased there was $11.00 p/50#bag. The place is called "Texas Farrier Supply" the phone # is (817) 478-6105.

Hayden, this might be an option for you too....
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Pound for pound, you use about 2x as much corn than good smithing coal. Corn simply has a lower heating value. It cokes rather similar to coal, and doesn't produce horrible green smoke.

The only coal I have used is "stoker" coal, and I find it rather unpleasant, since I do not have a smoke stack. For my uses, I don't use a significantly different amount of corn vs coal.

Phil

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mate dont feel bad about running out of coal,if you can get charcoal run this ,coal is bad gear ,if you have room on your place to build a cokeing pit do this ,i wont use coal ,just a thought ,its good to take heed sometimes,a guy on anvilfire years ago warned me about putting anything galcoated in the forge he said it was to late for him as he was finished,take care ,glen

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Your cheapest you can find coal might be costing you more than trying to get the best coal you can find!

We had a smith here in NM who got a great deal on some coal once. It was so bad he finally offered it anybody who would come and get it for *free* and then he got a load of good coal in. A lot of it ended as gravel in driveways... It is quite possible to get coal so bad your neighbors start mobbing your shop with pitchforks and torches *AND* you are spending 4 times longer trying to forge something *AND* it's messing up your work piece---"I got a real good deal on this coal, I just have to throw out 90% of what I make with it; but boy did I save money on it!)

The rule for checking out new coal sources is to gat a 5 gallon bucket or two to test before you buy a ton of "black gravel" (And bituminous is what you want---BUT it also has to be low sulfur, good coking, low in "rock", a good size, etc---as mentioned trying out the best gives you a yard stick to measure other coal by; but also makes you less content. I hope to buy some coal at Quad-State to hoard over the next year!)

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Howdy from East TEXAS!! and welcome to IFI! There is blacksmith coal maybe 10 miles from you, depending on where you live in Ft. Worth! It's in Kennedale, TX . Good coal and the last I purchased there was $11.00 p/50#bag. The place is called "Texas Farrier Supply" the phone # is (817) 478-6105.

Hayden, this might be an option for you too....


This is perfect, thank you. I'm actually new to blacksmithing and start classes in September. I've been reading that coal is can pretty offensive to neighbors and I'm wanting to do everything I can to prevent that. Is coke about the same as charcoal in terms of smoke/smell? If not, does anyone know of a good supplier of lump charcoal?
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Theres a blacksmith shop in Grapevine, he'd probably sell you some coal, if not search Houston Area Blacksmiths Association, go to the "coal bin" page, you can buy a 2,000 bulk sack of forge coke at Walton Terminals. (In Houston, its the cheapest I've found)


Any idea what the name of the shop in grapevine is? I'm not finding it. I'm going to see if he also sells lump charcoal.
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This is perfect, thank you. I'm actually new to blacksmithing and start classes in September. I've been reading that coal is can pretty offensive to neighbors and I'm wanting to do everything I can to prevent that. Is coke about the same as charcoal in terms of smoke/smell? If not, does anyone know of a good supplier of lump charcoal?

With coke you will need a constant air supply--electric blower. You can buy lump charcoal at the 'big box' stores. With coal there will be smoke but that can be minimize with proper fire control and saving some coke for you next fire. These 2 cokes are totally different, the coke from coal is soft and easy to light as well as keeping it lit. The first coke I mentioned is 'industrial' coke and it takes some practice getting it lit as well as keeping it lit. I've used very little lump charcoal but it is much like coal, easy to light and stay lit. Of course there is always the gas forge....no smoke or odor! There are plenty of folks in your area that can help you build one or locate one ready to work.

Who are you taking your B/S class from? They may be able to give you a heads up on buying your fuel.
The local ABANA group for you is the North Texas Blacksmith Assoc. http://www.ntxba.org check their web site for their next meeting. They just had one this past Sat., they usually meet on the 2nd Sat of the month. If you want to make the drive, I am in Longview, about 120mi from Dallas. I'm about 5 miles north of I-20, easy to get to. My shop is alway open.
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Been reading this thread from the start. Today I went to WalMart and bought 2 bags 10# each $6.49 a bag
of Royal Oak lump charcoal. Got out my demo forge took 1/2 a dirty paper towel 1 big hand full of pine shaving
and a hand full of wood stove pellets. I weighed out 4# of charcoal put it all together with 1 match and a low blast
on the blower in 5 minutes I had forging heat no smoke no smell. I forged 2, 6 in long hooks from 1/4 in. square,
2 leaves from 3/8 square. heated the 3/8 square to burning cut it off and welded it back together. Had about
1/2 a fire pot of fuel left. Thats $2.60 for 45 min. for fuel. That said I'd go to Wal-Mart. Must be 1 about everywhere.

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With coke you will need a constant air supply--electric blower. You can buy lump charcoal at the 'big box' stores. With coal there will be smoke but that can be minimize with proper fire control and saving some coke for you next fire. These 2 cokes are totally different, the coke from coal is soft and easy to light as well as keeping it lit. The first coke I mentioned is 'industrial' coke and it takes some practice getting it lit as well as keeping it lit. I've used very little lump charcoal but it is much like coal, easy to light and stay lit. Of course there is always the gas forge....no smoke or odor! There are plenty of folks in your area that can help you build one or locate one ready to work.

Who are you taking your B/S class from? They may be able to give you a heads up on buying your fuel.
The local ABANA group for you is the North Texas Blacksmith Assoc. http://www.ntxba.org check their web site for their next meeting. They just had one this past Sat., they usually meet on the 2nd Sat of the month. If you want to make the drive, I am in Longview, about 120mi from Dallas. I'm about 5 miles north of I-20, easy to get to. My shop is alway open.


Longview is about three hours from me - I might take you up on the offer some day. I'm taking the classes from Kelly Kring at the Dallas County Community College. It was only like $225 for an entire semester of classes (every Saturday). Not sure how they make it so cheap, but I'm not complaining. I'm sure most of my questions will be answered there, but it's still a few weeks from starting and I can barely wait!

I've seen/heard of lump charcoal at Walmart, but at nearly $1/pound I figured there might be a cheaper source. I guess it's worth the price for the convenience, though. I'll likely move to a gas forge eventually, but I try to keep my hobbies inexpensive until I know I'm going to stick with it.

Thanks for the response
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Healthwise: be careful with charcoal, it is a known producer of carbon monoxide; but since you don't see it you tend to forget about it. Coal smoke tells you up front "I am bad to breathe!" (Propane is like charcoal, invisible killer! I generally use propane but with massive ventilation in my shop---not 1 window open on the far wall but 2 10' x 10' roll up doors along the path of general winds here.)

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You will enjoy your time with Kelly, good man and a good smith. Been a while since I have seen him tho. He was the smith at the "Old City Park" now know as the "Dallas Historical Village", then moved to Lubbock. Returned and worked at the Farmers Branch blacksmith shop and now at the CC. All the $$ cut backs has played the dickens on him the past several yrs. $225.00 Ain't bad for a semester learning something this fun and rewarding. Enjoy the class!

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