Bad design?

[Logan Bryant]

Hello everyone. Im very new to blacksmithing, as in I've been "making knives" for roughly a month now and im having an issue with my firepot. I burn coke and i have a really big issue with the bottom layer of my coke becoming coated in ash and creating alot of clinker. This in turn seems like it causes me to use much more coke than what i believe is necessary. The walls of my firepot are only ~2.5 inches deep and i do have a clinker breaker but it is recessed below the rim of the hole cut into the bottom of the firepot, and i do not have any type of a grate covering the hole. I can get metal hot enough to forge but coke consumption seems to be an issue...ideas??

[Daswulf]

Some pictures of your forge and fire pot would probably help. 

When posting a question like this you should try to be as descriptive as possible. You know what you are working with but we don't. 

 

[turbo7]

In the meantime mate forge a pointer and dig your clinker out.

[Glenn]

Fuel consumption is a direct relationship to the amount of heat you use. More heat required more fuel, less heat requires less fuel. That is to say heat you need, not heat you waste.

With coal you need a fire ball about the size of a melon. Add only the air you need to get the heat you want. More fuel on top of that will insulate the embers and they will get hotter. Coke is about the same depending on the quality of YOUR coke and your forge.

Many folks have a problem with fire because the solid fuel fire is not deep enough. Big stock takes a BIG fire, small stuff takes a smaller fire. All stock requires hot embers in contact with the stock to transfer the heat to the stock. I have seen coal added to a fire from a 5 gallon bucket, as well as shoveled from a construction size wheel borrow. Fuel does not make a fire hot, air makes a fire hot.

Clinker is the stuff that does not burn contained in the fuel. If you want clinker, then throw a double hand full of dirt onto the top of your fire, turn up the heat, and continue to forge. You should get some wonderful clinker.  Back off on the air and rake or pull the clinker out of the fire so the fire will burn again. It usually comes out in large chunks like it is glued together. And no I am not kidding. You have to see and experience clinker in order to know how to work with clinker in your forge.