Hi all! Ive been struggling to find good quality forging coal here in South Africa. Now Im using Anthracite. The stuff works great! I needed to modify my blower a bit, anthracite needs a stronger airflow, but once lt gets going it heats metal to forging heat in a jiffy! Anyone else using anthracite?
Bb

The only problem I've seen with anthracite is that it is sometimes hard to light and keep lit.

we use anthracite if the coal is poor , i find it easy to work with,if you can get hold of some coal a small lump shoved into the fire when you leave it to work on other things will keep it going .

i use anthracite and never have had a problem with it not even with it going out

Wyoming stoaker Anthracite coal that goes through my home town in Colorado to the big power plants is sometimes high in sulfur. This makes it hard on steel and smell bad when burning. It is lower in btu than a good Bituminous like pocahontas #3. It just means you have to use more of it and hold your nose.:(

the Anthracite i use isnt the best around here but it will put out the heat and when it cokes up its really clean buring ...and ive alway been told that the reason bitomus coal was used by smiths because it coked up a little faster

the stuff i got doesnt smoke a lot, flames are a blueish colour. I use a bit of charcoal to keep it going. smokes less and smells less than the coal I first tried.

I have used a mixture of Anthracite the soft coal that comes out of Wyoming when I couldn't find anything better. Adding a little soft coal helps keep it lit by it's self it is hard to keep lit but it can be done. If you can't forge with the coal you want, forge with the coal you got.

Woody

Got my soft coal from the heating plant at UGA in Athens for years, I would spend a whole day coking up the coal and store the coke for later use, I am way out in the country so smoke was not a problem. Actually, because of the smoke a guy found my house and sold me the anvil I now use.