Some pretty rough coal

[Hayden H]

I got ahold of some pretty rough coal, it finally rained and I started the forge with a sheet of newspapaer as usual, about 15 minutes after the yellow and green smoke dissapeared, and the fire burned down enough, I put a rail road spike in the fire to heat. When I went to take the spike out, the bloomin' thing stuck to my tongs! To my absolute surprise, the spike and my tongs were stuck together with a clinker. I am now looking into ordering a 1/2 ton of coal. Best places to get coal, shoot...

[Glenn]

Try building a deeper fire, breaking up the clinker at the bottom to let more air blast through, or in general try to figure out how to use the coal till you can get a better grade of coal.

Ask the farriers where they get their coal. There are also a couple of threads on IForgeIron about where good coal is located. Texas may be one of the locations listed.

[Hayden H]

I'm using my "Redneck" forge, my soon to be finished main forge has a 12 by 14 by 8 3/4 firepot, this one has about 1/4 that. I'll take a look for the coal in Texas

[HWooldridge]

I went up to Stigler, OK about 25 years ago and got several tons at a local mine. A buddy of mine and I made the trip from San Antonio in one long day, stayed a night in one of the two flophouses that were there, then got up early next morning to load the coal with shovels onto my trailer and drove back same day. It was a long trip at the time but I still have about 1000 lbs left.

You might have good luck in Oklahoma City. There used to be several places there that sold blacksmiths coal but I cannot recall names. I seem to recall one place was a large feed store near downtown. There also used to be a place in Vinita, OK - I think it was called Phoenix Coal.

Good luck - make sure they know what you are looking for - high BTU, low ash, low sulfur, bituminous coal, capable of coking.