I Have Been Forgeing Knives On A Coal Forge For Some Time.i Have Been Able To Weld Two Damascus Blades On My Coal Forge. Its Not Easy To Do By Ones Self. If Anyone Can Help Find A Used Or A Good Deal On A New Forge That Will Get To Welding Temp That Would Be Great. Thanks Greg

Why would it take more than one person on a coal forge and not with a gasser.
How big of knives are you making ?

Mike Tanner

keeping up with a fire. keepin temp up . and my forge is not the most efficent

Check out www.diamondbackironworks.com Seems to have a good selection with reasonable prices, IMHO.

Tell him you heard about him on IforgeIron, also.

Jet, try a bigger coal fire and electric blown air. Set the air to idle the fire out at the temp you need.

I can attest that DiamondBack makes some nice hot forges... I got the 1 burner knife maker/welding forge.

So Eagle You Like The 1 Burner From Dimondback?

I have been welding in coal for years, what is the problem you are having, details please?

i always thought welding in a coal fire was much faster and easy'er than in a gas forge.

I Am Mostly Self Taught Pos I Am Not Doing Somthing Right. But With My Forge Keping Up With The Fire And Watching My Steel . And Trying To Keep It Clean For Me Is Not Easy. And Finding Good Coal Were I Am Is Getting Hard. So I Tought Using A Gasser To Be The Best Way To Go.

I have been welding in coal for years, what is the problem you are having, details please?

Steve like i sead i have been forging blads for some time.i am mostly self tought trial and earror mostly earror. I wanted to try some forge welding so i tryed heating and folding steel back on its self i was able to get it to weld. So i tryed bulding bellets heating and folding after some failure ok a lot of failure i did get enough for my first blade after that i was hooked. My first blade had about 150 layers but it was a lot of work and it tok a lot of coal. I did manage to make one more blade with 350 layers that looked pretty good. My set up is somthing out of the distent past. I cant afford to put a lot of money in all the stuf i need. So thiufgt in the long run it would be easer to go with a gas forge. I looked at your web site it had a lot of good info any help you be would great. Thank you Greg.

Please use sentence case in your posts

Personally, for Bladesmithing, I think gas is the only way to go. I forged in coal for a number of years, and upon moving to Montana in the early 90s, I had a difficult time finding any sources of good forging coal that didn't require cross country shipping.
After some trial and error I managed to build a propane forge that would weld. After the first couple of damascus billets I was thinking to myself "I wish I would have done this 10 years ago!" Much cleaner, far better control than I could ever achieve with coal, and in my situation, much more cost effective. I admit that there are times I do miss my coal forges, and even the smell of coal burning in the shop, however, since about 95% of my work consists of blades, when those times come I just place a small chunk of coal (leftovers from the coal forge days) at the front of the propane forge so I can have the smell of coal. :)