ronwend523 Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 Newbie to blacksmithing. Have worked with metal but never on a forge. I am building a small forge to try my hand at this. Looking at a fuel source I wondered if wood pellets had been tried at all. I see raw wood being used and thought maybe it would be a more condensed fuel. Any thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sargos Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 No clue, but I am about ready to sacrifice a pellet stove for a stand and rheostat controlled blower. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 Yes it's been tried; no it's not better than using straight charcoal or even wood. When burning sticking the workpiece in and out of it tends to cause the pellets to breakdown producing more forge fleas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RogueGeek Posted February 19, 2017 Share Posted February 19, 2017 I have a wood pellet stove so naturally I had to try it. It only took me about a minute to decide it wasn't such a great idea. Pellets are great for heating in stoves designed for their use, they are terrible for fueling a forge. I recommend sticking to chunks of wood, lump charcoal, or regular coal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 The only thing I use wood pellets for is starting my fire. The binders in wood pellets will contaminate the work, just as charcoal briquets will. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anachronist58 Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 Yep, wood pellets are yucky. Robert Taylor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 How about moose, dear or other undulant pellets? Actually dry manure is an ancient forge fuel still in use. Bad feed corn works a treat it's oily enough to stick together like coke. We had a bag go south on us so I gave it a try, it was a current topic here at the time. I'm not generally in favor of burning food for forge fuel in a hungry world. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 PHD: Pelletized Herbivore Dung Over the years I've come to the conclusion that if it burns and forms coals someone somewhere has used it for forging! I know Peat and Buffalo Chips have been used for a couple of instances Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn II Posted January 25, 2019 Share Posted January 25, 2019 Glad I finally found this thread. Saved me a $3.79 headache. Almost bought a bag yesterday when the big box store was out of lump charcoal. Went to a different store and found lump charcoal. Guess it's time to get dressed and head out to the shop... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted January 25, 2019 Share Posted January 25, 2019 On 3/7/2017 at 2:26 PM, Frosty said: Bad feed corn works a treat it's oily enough to stick together like coke. We had a bag go south on us so I gave it a try, it was a current topic here at the time. Here's that discussion, which actually just got restarted: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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