stutsyr Posted September 3, 2017 Share Posted September 3, 2017 What exactly is a Green Coal class? A presentation, demo, or a teach and do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swedefiddle Posted September 3, 2017 Share Posted September 3, 2017 Good Morning, Green Coal is what comes out of the ground, not what is painted Green. Enjoy the journey Neil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted September 3, 2017 Share Posted September 3, 2017 Welcome aboard Stutsyr, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the gang live within visiting distance. A "green coal" class would be about using uncoked coal and fire management. There are different techniques for using coal and keeping it under control. You don't actually forge in a coal fire any more than you do in a wood fire. You have to let it "Pyrolize" a term that denotes wood or coal that has had the volatiles and junk driven out by heat. Charcoal is to wood what coke is to coal, nearly pure carbon. Forge coke commonly known as "Breeze" well used to be anyway, if coked in the forge is light weight and good insulation. The green coal method entails coking while you use the fire. You build the fire over the air grate or in front of the tuyere pipe in a side blast forge. You keep green (ucoked) coal around and above the heart of the fire and allow waste heat from the heart to coke the green coal. This us typically a mound over the coke fire. You heat your steel in the sweet zone in the heart of the fire. Glenn has an excellent diagram showing the fire and zones, I don't have the link on tap but someone does and will post it soon. Anyway, the technique to use the green coal method is work in the heart and keep the green coal tamped down in the dome and dampen with water as necessary to prevent the whole dome from becoming involved. The heat and steam will drive off the unwanted hydrocarbons and elements, you do NOT want sulfur and phosphorus IN the heart, let the yellow smoke and white flames go up the stack, keep them OUT of the steel. Having someone show you the method is preferable to trying to figure it out on your own, a couple hours with an experienced smith is worth days maybe weeks on your own. Even reading up is nothing compared to having someone point out what you're doing wrong. Honest, self taught is over rated I know. Fire management is one of if not THE the most necessary skills sets. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted September 3, 2017 Share Posted September 3, 2017 Exactly as Frosty describes and fire management was the first thing Ike Doss taught me how to properly do. Here is the thread Glen put up on fire management. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted September 3, 2017 Share Posted September 3, 2017 I have a student that says a coal fire is "alive": you have to feed it and get rid of it's wastes and train it to do what you want. It's easier to start forging with propane as it's more of a set it and forget it fuel allowing students to concentrate on hitting hot steel. However the enjoyment of using coal like smiths have been doing since the late middle ages in Europe must be mentioned too. It's better for demos as it attracts people as long as you can keep from smoking them out... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wpearson Posted September 4, 2017 Share Posted September 4, 2017 a teach and do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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