Hard Coal

[Medicmc]

On craigslist I found someone giving away pea sized hard coal. Speaking to the person who placed the add she said there is about 7-8 garbage cans worth of coal that was used to heat the farmhouse. I've been using Pocahontas coal in my little rivet forge for the last few months with good results. But with shipping I paid $45 for 50lbs. So getting coal for free would be a good thing...if I can use it in my forge with a hand cranked blower. Any thoughts would be appreciated. I'm in northern NJ if anybody else nearby wants some email me. 

Thanks

Medicmc

[arftist]

You can use it. It doesn't work exactly the same but it certainly works. For some tasks it may not work as well. 

[Gromgor]

Blacksmithing: Taking whatever you can find and making it work.

 

200 lbs. of free coal that works 90% as well as what you use now, versus $45 for 50 lbs. at 100%.

 

Let's do some math here. You'll get  180 lbs. worth of the effectiveness for free. 

 

yeah, take the coal and even if it's so crappy you can't use it in a forge, it's free, and already packaged. Keep it "just in case".

[SJS]

Hard coal is harder to light, and you will need to keep an air blast on it to keep it going, the good news is if I remember correctly it has more btu's than soft coal. You can make it work. You could also mix it with the Poco and stretch the expensive coal with the free stuff.  Some stoker coal will smoke you out, but I don't think that is as much of a problem with anthracite...  I have used bad soft stoker coal that with NO air blast had green and orange flames 10-12" tall coming off of it and it smoked more than any coal I have ever used, it was awful, but it was free and there were a couple tons of it given to the historical association for the blacksmiths shop... You didn't need to worry about the fire going out cause you were talking too much, of course I was sick for a week from all the nasty stuff outgassing from that stuff. :blink: