Recommendations for Working with Anthracite

[Frosty]

So you say but you inhale it so fast nobody else gets a taste. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[jlpservicesinc]

Only if there is the right amount of O2..   Does it have any flavor..  Just like a fine wine..  LOL.. 

Would be super nice to have nothing but time to play and make videos showing all the neat and nifty ways.. 

Maybe when I retire from Farrier work. 

[anvil]

now now, Jen, watch your innuendo's.  Its easy to see if you compare burning hard coal vs coke of any kind.  Hard coal takes far more air to just plane burn as well as to maintain, than coke,,, by a magnitude. You can't get rid of this difference and this difference causes an oxidizing fire. 

[Frosty]

I have to differ Anvil, I've burned a lot of anthracite, it's about the only easily accessible coal here. There is some world class metallurgical coal but it's WAY harder to get to.

No matter what you're burning scale can only develop if there is UNCONSUMED oxy reaching the work. Anthracite requires a more constant flow of air, not necessarily more. Some seams coke just fine even it takes longer and smokes a lot. 

The stuff we have handy gets broken up to 1/4" +/- pieces and gets lit with a small wood or breeze fire and a steady blast. If you open the ash dump it'll stay lit for a while so you don't have to stand there cranking full time. Once it cokes it behaves a lot like a well coked bituminous fire except for the need for constant air and smelly smoke from the outside of the dome.

It isn't my preference but this stuff WILL work. It's just fuel play with it and you'll discover how to use it. You have to LISTEN to whatever you're working with, it speaks to you IF you pay attention.

Frosty The Lucky.

[anvil]

I'm not saying it won't work, just pointing out things to be aware of, and how to overcome them. I haven't burnt hard coal in over 30 years. I did burn it for my horse shoeing back then. I taught myself how to make pony shoes and draft horse shoes for the rare time I needed them. Hard coal from the local sand and gravel place and my first owner built forge. My forge was little different from the myriad firsts seen here. I had a dc fan that I ran off my battery by connecting the ground with a c clamp and tapping the hot for air. Tap fast, lots of air. tap slow, little air. Quit tapping and no air. Sweet! However, whenever I turned to my anvil to work the shoe, the fire went out.

Frosty, I mean no critique, but I have never heard of anthracite coking. I wonder if your coal might have some coking coal mixed in. I know that here in Colorado most of the coking coal mines sell their "good stuff" to other mines to better their product.

And I agree with you. You get scale from unconsumed oxygen. Hard coal burns next to your work and some of it reacts with your steel causing scale and carburization and an oxidizing environment.

Thats why I like my Centaur type firepot. 4" of coke underneath, 2" on top and a clinker ball that directs air around and up the sides. No direct air blast on my work. But that's not the purpose of this thread. So again, my remarks are meant only to point out inherent problems using hard coal and how to overcome them.