Rantalin Posted August 19, 2005 Share Posted August 19, 2005 How efffective is forging with charcoal briquettes? I know its not the best thing to use, and I could make charcoal if necessary, but I was oplanning on doing some forgin on sunday and I have no fuel. I usually buy bags of 100% natural wood charcoal from hardware stores around town, but it seems every place I find that has charcoal never restocks after I buy it all. I don't have the money to order fuel online, as I am a college student and to ship coal to my house would drain all of my money. I am only going to be heating a piece of either flat 1" X 1/8" X 48" or a round bar 1/2" X 48". Thank You Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blacksmithtech Posted August 19, 2005 Share Posted August 19, 2005 .......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JPH Posted August 19, 2005 Share Posted August 19, 2005 Rant: Yes you can do it but there will be so much ask and sparks (cinders and all) from the compressed swadust in the briquette when the air blast hit it you will probably be sorry that you even thouht about it. However, there is hope...look in your local phone book under Bar-Be-Ques supplier/supplys/sales and they should have in stock what is commonly called "lump charcoal".. This is usually oak, ash or hickory, depending upon local demand. Unlike the briquettes which is basically sawdust and a binder with some hard coal dust thrown in, the lump charcoal is real wood. It gets alot hotter than the briquettes and dosesn't "ash" as heavily. In fact it gets so hot you can melt the workpiece. It does however spark a bit so watch out for that...It usually comes in 10 to 20 lb bags... Anyway, hope this helps.. JPH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted August 19, 2005 Share Posted August 19, 2005 Think outside of the boxstore! We used to get our chunk charcoal from a roofing supply place; turns out that old style roofers preferred to heat their soldering coppers in a charcoal fired heater up on the roof top. (Columbus, OH) Chunk charcoal gets hot enough to burn the steel and so hot enough to forge with---the first couple of thousand years of the iron age (and all the early medieval pattern welded swords and wootz) used charcoal as the fuel. If it's not hot enough for you you are doing it wrong. (Charcoal does profit from a forge designed to use it...) Thomas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rantalin Posted August 19, 2005 Author Share Posted August 19, 2005 I've been using charcoal all summer, but every place I buy it from never has it in stock after I buy some. Shipping costs almost double the price to buy coal or charcoal online. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JPH Posted August 19, 2005 Share Posted August 19, 2005 Rant: Have you asked the store manager to place say a 100 lb order for you??? You might even get a price break... I do that when I am running a smelting....I get a very good price and all I gotta do is just run down and pick it up.. Give it a go..doesn't hurt to ask... Or, you can go on line, bite the bullet and just order what you will need... JPH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rantalin Posted August 19, 2005 Author Share Posted August 19, 2005 All stores I've checked at are no longer stocking charcoal at the warehouse, it seems that they are only selling it around winter time for heating fuel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the other dave Posted August 19, 2005 Share Posted August 19, 2005 Besides hardware stores, have you tried your local Wally World for hardwood lump charcoal. Also check with restaurant supply businesses - someone supplies the charcoal for those grilled steak places. Or try hanging around a home barbeque restaurant and find out what they do with the wood ashes leftover from the smoking process, usually there's pieces of charcoal mixed in. And since you're at a college, check at the art department and see if anyone is using a wood fired pottery kiln. Or maybe you could head down to the beach and check the fire pit the day after the big bonfire party. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rantalin Posted August 19, 2005 Author Share Posted August 19, 2005 Walmart had a good 200+ lbs of natural wood charcoal, but when I went back, all of it was gone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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