Benjamin de Wet Posted June 11, 2017 Share Posted June 11, 2017 Good day fellow Blacksmiths I might be able to offer you a solution that will not only burn better but safes you money by doing so. I would appreciate it if you took the time to answer the following few questions in order for me to determine if it will be worth while pursuing. If you are currently using a coal forge what coal do you use and how is that working for you? What do you need/want from your coal? Where are you currently getting your coal and at what price? How do you feel about a briquette type coal that has better burning results than anthracite but at a fraction of the price? Thanks allot for your participation. All of the best for your endeavours and keep the iron clinging. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted June 11, 2017 Share Posted June 11, 2017 What coal do you use and how is that working for you? Bituminous coal, and it works very well. We are fortunate to be in a coal right area, and have some of the best metallurgical coal in the world available. What do you need/want from your coal? You want a coal in the 14,000 BTU range or higher. Low sulphur, low ash content. Where are you currently getting your coal and at what price? We have several seams of coal available, all acceptable for blacksmithing, and within 100-150 miles one way. If you buy coal by the ton (2000 pounds) it is less expensive than if you buy it by the pound or bag. Bags weight can vary from 25 to 50 pounds. Best price is a full truck load of 28 tons or so. The price per ton or price per pound is reasonable at that amount. Shipping is always a factor with any purchase. The very best price is a rail road car quantity, but then you have to get from the rail yard to your location, which can be many truck loads, and you have to have a place to store the coal. A 55 gallon drum will hold about 400 pounds and a pallet 4 feet tall will hold about a ton (2000 pounds). Always find out if you are buying a long ton, a short ton, or a metric ton. It makes a difference. How do you feel about a briquette type coal. If you mean charcoal briquettes used for grilling or cooling food, look for or make charcoal from wood. Briquettes have a lot of sawdust and clay in them and are poor fuels for a forge. Anthracite or hard coal can be used for forging but needs a small constant air blast to keep burning. Bituminous or soft coal is preferred as a forge fuel. There are many different seams of the coal each seam a little different in composition. Metallurgical coal is a type of bituminous coal and is very good for forging. The lignite and brown coals is used as a fuel, but I do not know if it is any good for forging. Charcoal has been used for centuries as a fuel. It can be made as needed from wood. You need to find a fuel that is available, cheap, and in your area. Then build a forge to use that fuel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted June 11, 2017 Share Posted June 11, 2017 Coal briquettes: as I use the coking properties of good bituminous coal a lot, anthracite is pretty much the lowest variety of coal I would use. Coal briquettes sound much too large for the forge (In a bloomery the desired neutral zone is around 12 times the average diameter of the fuel above the entrance of the tuyere. Stack up briquettes to get that and realize that you then want even more coal on top of that so the workpiece is in the middle of the fire...) Coal pellets would essentially be the rice and nut anthracite we can already buy here in the states. Have you done much forging with various fuels? Experience is a better foundation for new ideas than looking at it from the outside. (and Glenn, Lignite and Peat have been used for forging where nothing else was available...) Charcoal has been used for millennia as it was the first fuel of blacksmithing with coal getting added alongside it in the High/Late Middle Ages in Europe. I have appended the specs for what is considered a top grade of coal for smithing here in the USA: Seam : Pocahontas No. 3, Type : Low Volatile Bituminous (lvb)Ash : 7.44%Sulfur: 0.64%BTU: 14542Volatile : 15.70%Carbon: 92.42%Reflectance: 1.85 How close does your briquettes come to matching that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjamin de Wet Posted June 11, 2017 Author Share Posted June 11, 2017 The briquettes lab's results are as follows: According to SABS and ISO standards the following was obtained. %H2O - 4.8 %Ash - 28.3 %Volatile - 20.2 %F/Carbon - 46.7 MJ/kg Cal. value - 20.6 %T Sulphur - 0.82 And the ultimates ASTM D 5373 results: %Carbon - 54.2 %Hydrogen - 3.31 %Nitrogen - 1.32 %Oxygen - 7.25 I see there is a few differences with the biggest one being in the %Ash and %Carbon other than that would this be something you would consider to use? I would like to hear from the South African Smiths as well for the product would be first distributed here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted June 11, 2017 Share Posted June 11, 2017 If it doesn't coke I don't think I would be interested. 4 times the ash means more crud in the forge. What is the size of the briquettes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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