Question about charcoal

[jasonmichalski]

I turned up the air for the photo but when I have steel in it the is lower and the blue flame just pokes out with little to no sparks.


the water content of the charcoal can also cause it to spark this was the first time the forge was warmed in about two months.

the air source is fully adjustiable and the depth of the fire is about 5-6" and can be made to about 12" in this forge

I brake up the chunks and seive out the fines you can see the size with the air off and the charcoal from stores is not burned all the way so that the flaver gets to your food. homemade charcoal has no flaver left, if its all the way done

[ThomasPowers]

As mentioned to cut down on sparking: sieve out the fines and let the charcoal heat up and drive off any water before getting to the heart of the fire.

Remember that charcoal needs a deeper fire to get reducing---in a bloomery the point where you get a reducing fire is around 12 times the average fuel piece size above the tuyere (Rehder, The Mastery and Uses of Fire in Antiquity) so if you just pour on big chunks out of the bag you should be making a very deep fire indeed!

[jasonmichalski]

As mentioned to cut down on sparking: sieve out the fines and let the charcoal heat up and drive off any water before getting to the heart of the fire. Remember that charcoal needs a deeper fire to get reducing---in a bloomery the point where you get a reducing fire is around 12 times the average fuel piece size above the tuyere (Rehder, The Mastery and Uses of Fire in Antiquity) so if you just pour on big chunks out of the bag you should be making a very deep fire indeed!

Thanks for the info, I learned something new, as I always do from your posts.