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I Forge Iron

What would I need (in terms of equipment) in my shop?


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I started with charcoal in a forge I built myself back in 1981, bottom blast, over the years I have used both bottom blast and side blast for charcoal,  never a water cooled tuyere though. When I do Y1K demos; I build a side blast adobe trench forge and use twin single lung bellows with no check valves---and most importantly a bellows thrall!  Charcoal for fuel as coal didn't start being used until centuries later! I generally use a separate fire to make my coals and built a shovel with a screen body to shake out any ash or small bits of charcoal and then transfer the "good stuff" to the forge as needed.  (I started making it ahead of time, back in 1981; but decided that that was spending time coaling when I could be spending time forging.)

BTW when you can burn andesite  in your forge let us know---you will be giving Vulcan a run for his money!  I think you meant anthracite; however the best blacksmithing coals are bituminous ones;  not anthracite!

Most of my comments would get people started pretty much as fast and a lot cheaper.  I once went out and put together a complete starter kit: Coal forge, blower, improvised anvil and basic tools for under US$25 because a fellow online was talking about "needing to spend a couple of thousand dollars to get started forging"; of course this was on the 1990's ASCII internet, rec.crafts.metalworking IIRC.

My eldest Daughter graduated from Vet School at Colorado State and I got my first job as a Geologist at a conference in Denver many years ago.  Are you in High CO of low CO?

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Andesite is NOT coal, it is a type of igneous rock.

Anthracite is hard heating type coal.

Bituminous is soft coal used as metallurgical / smithing coal. IF it has a low enough sulfur, phosphorous, etc. content. 

Frosty The Lucky.

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