Forge won’t light coal

[Nathan Kraft]

As some of you may remember, I built my first forge a while ago. Today I was going to light it for the first time. I got a roaring fire going with wood, then put coal on it and the wood burned off but the coal didn’t light. I am using anthracite coal in a side blast jabod forge. Anyone have ideas/suggestions of what could be wrong?

[Ramsberg]

Anthracite must get very, very hot to combust, it's nearly pure carbon. And it needs a constant supply of air to stay lit.

On your next try, sprinkle little bits of your anthracite in with your initial wood fire, before it's lit. Then, as you build the wood fire up more, continue to sprinkle in the anthracite. The coal should then be catching fire along with the wood, and when you have a bed of mixed coals of anthracite and wood going, continue to sprinkle on new anthracite until you have a full fire going.

[Steven NY]

Hello Nathan,

I also run a coal forge on Anthracite. I have included a picture of the way I setup my fire pot before adding the coal. Once you get your first coal fire going they will become easier to start as you will be able to use your left over partial burnt coal from your previous fire to start you next one. I light the paper under the pile of wood and as soon as the wood is going I start shoveling on the coal, starting at the front of the fire pot and working my way back until I have 3-4 inches of coal pilled on top of the still burning wood. This is the smokey stage of the operation. After the wood burns down under the coal and the coal is burning the smoke will die down to almost none. From the time I light the paper to the time my forge has a good bed of coal burning is 10 - 15 minutes. For reference my fire pot is roughly 14" square, and 4 inches deep, with a bottom blast style air supply. It take a long burning wood fire under the anthracite to get the forge going.  I light an anthracite fired forge everyday, one at work every other day and one at home almost every night. What size coal are you using? Do you have a picture of your set up and how you lay your starting fire? 

Hope this helps,

W

[Kozzy]

I start with a small pile of 6 or 8 standard BBQ briquettes.  Once those get going well (starting with regular BBQ lighter fluid), I add the coal and turn on the air. A few minutes later and things start heating up well.   Part of the secret with this stuff is careful air control--too little and it dies, too much and it seems to blow so much needed heat out of the fire area that it also dies--the high air-flow actually seems to cool the fire. There is a narrow sweet spot in the middle where you get the fires of Hades. 

[Nathan Kraft]

Thanks for the help y’all. Due to your help I was able to get my forge going and do my first ever forge work (I was heat treating and accidentally melted the tip of my knife. I had to hammer in a rough tip and then clean it up in the grinder.) I plan to do some more forging over this week of “coronacation” lol.

Sorry that this is kinda unrelated, but what kind of beginner projects would y’all suggest I start with to help me learn some hammer control?

[JHCC]

Did you read this?

 

18 minutes ago, Nathan Kraft said:

Sorry that this is kinda unrelated, but what kind of beginner projects would y’all suggest I start with to help me learn some hammer control?

S-hooks and nails.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Others for hammer control are chisels, punches and drifts. Then you have working tools to boot.

[ThomasPowers]

One aspect about projects I don't see addressed very often is: is it something you can use, sell or give away as a welcome gift?  That sort of project tends to get more care taken making it than projects just for the sake of hammering.  You really want to make a number of the same thing trying to make each one better than the previous one.  Yes you need to build up muscles---but you also need control and your "eye" developed too.