Foundry coke

[andy ebbers]

well, hope this is not too stupid of a question, but, is the coke used at a big commercial foundry suitable for use in my little forge? seems like I had read somewhere that it may not. I am planning to use hardwood charcoal, and thought it may be good to use some coke along with the charcoal. Thanks, Andy

[Frosty]

It'll work but you'll need to break it up into fairly small pieces, pea to grape in range. It'll be much harder to keep lit when the blast is idle than either coal or charcoal. Using it in a mix with charcoal will make it easier to light and keep going.

It should be fine though.

Frosty

[Bryce Masuk]

try it and see how many clinkers are produced by burning it,

some coal i have seen in the past makes way too many clinkers to use effectively

[Rob Browne]

Give it a try but remember that you can't turn off the air when working on a piece as you can with coal so if you have a hand cranker it will be difficult.

See how it goes and give us a report.

[Daryl]

My first experience with metallurgical/foundry coke:
Light small coal fire, get hot. Add coke. Beautiful low blue-white flame. Need more air - pump bellows. Flame appears to get low - still blue-white, add more coke. Seems pretty hot - flame gates low, add coke, pump bellows. Add coke, pump bellows (getting tired). Fire is a beautiful blue-white flame all across the space over the firepot - seems to sink before my very eyes. ????? Add more coke, pump bellows. Firepot falls through bottom of forge on to floor. Flame pattern through the firepot had turned the upper edge of the firepot so hot, the weight of the bottom stretched it down and separated.
Now, make lumps smaller and build the fire with one part coke to two parts coal - very nice fire.

[civilwarblacksmith]

When using any type of coke, you need to have an electric blower or it will go out.

[TASMITH]

It is not recommended to use coke in a coal firepot. Coke firepots are generally cast iron and much shallower than firepots made for coal.If you check out coke firepots at sites like centaur forge you will see that they are round and about half the depth or less than a firepot designed for coal.
The reason for this design is that a true metallurgical coke is about 90 to 95 percent pure carbon. It IS difficult to light but it burns a LOT hotter than coal.

Coal itself contains a great number of byproducts that are driven off in the coking process that you are burning up in your forge. The burning of these products take energy from the burning coal itself and you get less heat available
to heat your work. Wlth coke and sufficient air almost all the available energy is released in your forge and available to heat your work.

If you use coke in the deeper coal firepot the temp down near the tuerre in the firepot gets a LOT hotter than it does with coal and can and WILL burnout the firepot very quickly.

[Walking Dog]

I normally use coal, but I've got a stash of metallurgical coke as well. I use my coke most effectively for forge welding - when my welding fire starts going hollow, I drop in some pieces of coke to keep it going, rather than raking in green coal and having to put the weld on hold while the coal cokes up. Sometimes this is quite useful, especially when heating a larger piece of work for welding.


Yes, the coke does burn very hot and clean.

[Blacksmith Jim]

Wish I could find some out in Oregon...

[andy ebbers]

thanks Bryce, to the best of my knowledge, coke does not produce clinkers

[andy ebbers]

thanks, I had not considered this! I would not like it at all if the firepot on my old Champion forge turned bright colors and dropped out onto the floor! I am still gonna experiment with it, as I can get a bunch of it for free, which fits nicely into my current budget. I will be forging indoors, so the charcoal&coke plan is primarily to help eliminate as much of the smoke and gases produced by coal as possible (without going to a gas forge) I appreciate all of the great information in regards to my question, and will pass along my results when I finally get to the point when I can try this out--within the next couple months if all goes well. Thanks again, andy

[TASMITH]

Andy, beware of using coke indoors without PLENTY of ventilation!!
Burning metallurgical coke produces Tremendous amounts of CARBON MONOXIDE! That is it's purpose. Coke is used in blast furnaces to smelt iron and the basic chemical reaction of the smelting process is the carbon monoxide produced by the coke reacting with the iron oxide to take up the oxygen from the iron oxide reducing it to iron and producing carbon dioxde from the carbon monoxide and oxygen fron the iron!

[TASMITH]

Remember- Carbon monoxide is clear, odorless, tasteless and DEADLY!!!!

[NateDJ]

lowes / home depot / etc sell carbon monoxide detectors, may be a healthy investment. Think even walmart sells them now.