Coal sizing

[Asa Simons]

Happy Wednesday,

I get my coal in large chunks, and have to use a small hammer to break each lump into individual pieces. Is there a better way to do this? Thanks in advance.

Asa 

[BillyBones]

Stoker or nut coal. The chunks are about the size of a walnut. That is how i buy mine. Try a local historic re-enactment place near you that has a blacksmith. That is how they provably get it. That is who my coal supplier supplies with the stoker. I buy the left overs which last delivery was 3 tons. 

I have bought lump or bulk coal, i have a piece in my barn that is about 2'x2'x18". When i get it like that i put some in a metal can, one of them old 5 gal. tar cans,  and drop a 12# sledge on top of it a few times. 

You can also just leave it as is. Put it around your fire and as it cokes it will be a lot easier to knock off pieces. 

Thomas Powers used to tell the story of burning just one huge block in the forge. 

when you break up the bulk coal save your dust, chips, and fines. Mix them with a little water, just enough to hold together and form into a ball, you dont want a mud ball. They will coke up and naturally stick together. 

 

[JHCC]

Get a piece of steel stair tread grating like this:

 

or weld up something similar, put it over a bucket, and hammer your coal through it. Don't get too fussy; as BillyBones notes, you're going to be coking up the coal anyway.

[Nobody Special]

I'm largely in agreement; buy smaller coal if you can, let it break up in the fire, or if you do break it up with a hammer, put it in a bag first to retain the pieces, although do know it wears out the bag quickly, and it also tends to break what's under it over time if it isn't dirt. You can also use a heavy wire screen on a box to sort by size, but all-in-all, the bust it up and sift it method is very labor intensive.

Are you getting bituminous? A lot of the coal I got in larger sizes when I first started forging were anthracite, which will work but is more difficult to use - the fire takes more air and thus tends to be hotter and more oxidizing. That makes it easier to overheat or burn work, and it means that you get a lot of scale and that forge welding is more difficult. On the other hand, it's easier to find and it's faster.

[JHCC]

If you're considering anthracite, please read the Recommendations for Working with Anthracite article.

[Asa Simons]

I pick them up off the hill side at local spot, not sure what kind of coal it is. I do NOT plan to keep doing this, there is a spot near us that sells actually good coal. The stuff I use is not super hard to light, it stays lit well between heats with no air. So I don’t need to worry about it being all different sizes when crushing it in a bucket, cus dropping a 12lb sledge would make a lot of difference in size. If I do use a heavy screen/grid, just bash it through till everything is through, no matter the size?

Thanks for the input.

Asa

[BillyBones]

Being in Colorado and looking at a map of coal deposits in the USA, most likely bituminous coal. Possibly sub-bituminous. Does the coal coke? Sub-bituminous does not coke. 

[Asa Simons]

It cokes very well. I rinse all the chunked up pieces before I use them, and it makes for a cleaner fire.

[BillyBones]

Sounds like you are using bituminous. 

When i was a kid me an my cousins would walk up the road picking up coal that fell off the trucks from the mine at the head of the holler. We had a coal burning stove to heat the house. Getting coal in our stocking at Christmas was good thing, we got to stay warm that night,

[Nobody Special]

Well, if it's bituminous, and not too high sulfur, it might be very good coal for what you're doing. There's very good coal deposits not horribly far from me in WA, but nobody mines, uses, or sells it anymore; it's largely verbotten. I don't blame them, it's horrible for the environment, but I still greatly prefer it over charcoal for forging.