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Hello,
Does it have the look of a fine celled bath sponge, with a spot or two of shiny glazzed over spots on it? If so I also had a few pieces of that. I was told it'd burn just fine. I had the same problem, wouldn't burn, wouldn't break up. I finally pitched it into the driveway to fill a rut. I hope you didn't pay much for it. If so see if they would take it back, or prove to you that it'd burn correctly.

Coke should have some amount of constant blast because there are no volatiles present to keep it burning between heats - so you may have to go to an electric blower or mix in some coal so the stuff will continue to cook when you stop cranking.

I don't know what to tell you about the size - if this is a steady supply, maybe you can make a crushing jig and a pan to catch the small pieces when you break it up. Does a vise smash it better than a hammer?

I got some like that one time, I used a pipe with a heavy plate welded on the bottom and I cut part of one side of the pipe off so that only certain sized chunks would come out or smaller, the smaller stuff burns better the air can't just pass around it. oops forgot, I made a plunger on a smaller pipe with a round plate that would fit inside the pipe and i just stomped it into smaller pieces.

You can usually keep the fire going by shoving a piece of wood into it while it is idle. Make sure your fire is banked well to keep the heat inside longer.

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This is the material I got from Pa. that was called industrial coke. It burns well but requires a depth of 1-1/2 times that of coal and a constant air blast to keep it going.



This is good blacksmithing coal. Crumbles easily, light easy and burns hot. Once it is burning, it will continue to burn (my forge) for 3-4 hours with no air blast.

There is a blueprint in progress called "Coal, Coke and Rocks". It should be posted shortly.

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If you could get your hands on some cannonballs or something you could build a simple ball mill -- take a plastic barrel, mount it on rollers with a motor drive, put the coke and the cannonballs in, and keep an eye on it otherwise it will mill the coke down to powder!

Down here coke is all the go. From my experience if you can grab a big tennis ball size lump and are able to munch it up in your hands it is good stuff. It'll burn hot and clinker up nicely instead of turning to dust and ash, making cleaning the fire a breeze. But then as I read here somewhere, and promised self, that's a good'n, "experience is what you get when when you didn't want to get it". (JPH I think)

One more thing BST be sure to sieve your coke before you whack it on the fire. Keep the sievings (breeze) it makes a good medium to fashion a hearth. The old, fair dinkum blacksmiths I associate with have only ever used a breeze hearth. rebuilding the hearth each morning with a bit of breeze and water mixed to a mortar consistency.

Another one more thing. A coke fire needs constant air otherwise it just goes out. Mine take about 15 minutes to go out without air.. just enough time for a coffee and gasper. It's the nature of the beast.

blacksmithtech
Depending on how much coke you have, you may want dump the coke in the drive way, fire up that humongous SUV and use it as a crusher. Just sweep up the remains and the fines.

Don't laugh, we use a pickup this way to crush aluminum cans for recycling, and to remove the hulls from walnuts in the fall.

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Sorry BST. It's always a risk inviting foriegners into the fold. Always glad to explain any lexicological troubles you have; as below.

Coffee...what you drink during smoko...smoko... mid morning or mid afternoon spell from working hard....spell...rest

Gasper...a not to be encouraged delivery system for the drug nicotine...a smoke...also had at smoko....a cigarette...or, dare I say it (check the context)... a fag.

A variation of hammer-and-bucket: Get a 4-6 inch diameter piece of pipe about 2 feet long and the next smaller diameter that will easily fit but make that one about 4 feet long. Weld a plate on each piece so one end is closed. Put the coke in the big pipe and smash it with the smaller one then dump out the pieces.