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I Forge Iron

How do you Light your fire?


TASMITH

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This may have been covered in another thread at some point but maybe for the newbies it might be an idea to bring it to the fore-front again. What do you use to start up your coal forge? Some use paper, some wood shavings etc.

I use lint from the dryer to light mine! I collect the lint from the trap of the dryer and keep a bag of it out in the forge. To light the fire I take three small balls of lint, dip them in a bit of kerosene ( or paint thinner) add a few sticks of ceder (old shakes or shim stock work really well) cut into short pieces of about an inch or so. I set these in the bottom of the firepot and light the lint, turn on a bit of air to get a hot fast flame, then add some coke on top. I let it go with a low air flow for a couple of minutes, add more coke then crank up the air! I generally have a full workable fire in ten minutes and the lint and ceder burn up completely with no residue to interfere with air flow or contaminates in the fire.
How do you do start yours and what is your success rate for a first try?

My method works about 99% of the time!:)

The lint works well for summer camping fires as well if you dip it in melted paraffin and let it harden. Great firestarter!

Edited by TASMITH
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I use 2 to 3 full sheets of newspaper. Lay them on top of each other put a hand on top and bottom in the center then start gathering it together with the top hand until you get a ball that looks similar to a mushroom. It will be balled up tightly on top with enough hanging down to start burning good. Get it burning and set it over your air inlet, hold it down and put coal all the way around it but leave the center and a little slot in the front open. once the paper burns away use your poker and knock the coal into the void that was left. This works everytime for me even if the coal is wet.

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Lighting charcoal's easy. Ball up 1 sheet of new paper, pile on charcaol until it's about 7/8ths buried, light the paper, turn on the blower when the paper starts buring well, remove any remaing paper with tongs after a little of the charcoal gets going, add steel after you get a whole bed of coals.

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news paper works, used to use it a lot, still do on occasion. Lately I grab a few chunk from the BBQ and light the charcoal with the propane torch head. it lights fast, and while it burning pile the leftover coal/coke from the previous forge session. and start cranking.

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I collect the lint from the trap of the dryer and keep a bag of it out in the forge. To light the fire I take three small balls of lint, dip them in a bit of kerosene ( or paint thinner) add a few sticks of ceder. I set these in the bottom of the firepot and light the lint, turn on a bit of air to get a hot fast flame.


DO NOT use accelertants (combustible liquids) to light a fire in the forge.
There is too much chance for accidents and injury for the small amount of time (if any) saved by their use.

Many years ago I was privledged to a conversation about using accelertants (combustible liquids) to light a fire. The comment was made to use "a little". From the back of the room came "is a little more or less than a liter?" The point was made real fast.

A good "boy scout" fire with newspaper, and small sticks is all you need. Get the fire going, get it hot, then add coal as needed.
DO NOT use accelertants (combustible liquids). It is not needed and can be dangerous.


LB0010 Building a Fire
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I take a shovel full of coals from the woodstove, put it in the firepot, cover with coal/coke and turn on the air.......forging fire in 2 minutes 100% of the time


Ya got a woodstove going in the dead of SUMMER!??! ;) I use pine cones, with 60 acrea of pine trees I usually can find one or two! Light 1 cone, place in fire pot with 2 more, place coke on top and crank away. If I have plenty of coke from the last fire I can be forging in 10 mins or so.
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I decided some time ago that I needed to slow down and smell the roses, one of the activities that helps me do this is whittling, just sittin in my rocker, and cuttin slivers out of some poor hapless branch I happen upon, then when finished with whatever ruminations I have gone through, I gather up the bits, and they start a great coal fire, 2 birds with 1 stone as it were. All you knife makers oughts try this, if only to prove your products, if you happen to enjoy a cold beer.... well you know!!

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I cut a strip of cardboard a couple inches wide and 18" or so long, roll it into a tight coil and lay it over the air grate. Then I shovel breeze/coal around it and let the coil slip a little so there's a little gap between layers. With the coil at the bottom of a crater of coal I drop a lit match or two into the coils and give it enough air to get going. Then I bury it with nut sized 3/4" coal or breeze and increase the air. Then I pile the coal on and give it the air. It takes less time to do than describe in writing.

It's never failed.

Frosty

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A boy scout at heart here I guess, I start mine with wood kindling and a single match. As I hike around on our property I gather sassafras twigs from off the trees that have died and dried but haven't broke off yet. I keep a bucket of such twigs on hand most always.

Sassafras has a higher oil content than most woods (similar to cedar), Starts easy burns hot, I usually have a fire ready for metal within 8 minutes maybe 10 if I'm slackin'.

When i worked at the pioneer village we used cedar shakes that didn't split well. Lay the shake on the anvil and basically pulverized it into tender... worked as well as my Sassafras...

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I have to agree with ironrosefarms........sassafras makes great kindling. I'ts my number one choice.
A balled up sheet of newspaper , a handful of pencil sized sasafras sticks, a match, and can build my forge fire most anytime.

In emergency situations, when it was pouring the rain and I couldn't find anything dry in the shop to start a fire with, I have shaved a few small pieces of parafin candle and wrapped it up in a piece of cotton cloth.......placed it in the forge and lit it.
Kinda makes a big candle that burns for five minutes.....and usually gets the fire started.
It only takes a spoonful of wax to do it.

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Hey Jayco, got a dare for ya to try... take a handful of sassafras twigs just like you would usually use to light your forge, dunk them into the slack tub and hold them there, count to five (ten if it makes you feel better) pull them out, shake off the excess water then stack as usual and light it... I love doing this with young scouts who "can't" get a fire going! The oil content in the wood resists the water real well!

James

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James, I have no doubt it will work........but just for the fun of it I'll try it anyway.
Sassafras is the only wood I know that grows locally (Ky) that can lay on the ground for years and will STILL be useful as kindling!
I'll have to try it!

James

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Hi friends,

Great thread guys. I've been needing some help with my coke fire starting procedures. We burn coke in our high school classes to minimize smoke in our urban setting. This is all great except the starting part. I can get a fire up in about 5 minutes, but the way I do it is smokey as all get out. Coke is a bear to get started compared to coal (or coked coal). A few sheets of paper waded up in the traditional donuts just doesn't get it kicked off. I either use a whole bunch of paper rolled up into a tight 6" to 8" ball (layered up a sheet at time), or less paper combined with some wood kindling. Either way I light the paper and get it going a bit with a little air and then pile on the coke and let her rip. Smokes like nobody's business, but in a about five minutes we've got a rip snorter of a fire (no more smoke whatsoever) and can get our class under way.

Problem is the few minutes of voluminous amounts of smoke! Anyone got any smoke free starting suggestions for coke?

Thanks, Phil

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Start with a HOT fire from sticks, drag in a little solid fuel (coal, coke, charcoal, whatever) a little bit at a time till it catches. Build a volcano (inverted cone) and leave the top open to let the fire escape and burn off the smoke. With a little effort and careful fire maintenance, there should be minimal smoke.

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To all the beginers out there here is the best way to light a forge that i found. Ive tried all the newspaper ideas and have NEVER goten one to work. so what i tried was to leave about half an inch of pebble size coal at the bottem of my forge and put a nice piece of coke on top of these about the size of a acorn,(coal will work but takes longer). then i take splinters of wood and lay them on the coke and then lay thicker sticks on those, then i line the sides with coke, and get a plumbers torch and start lighting the wood, as i do this i add more and more coal around the edges. once the wood is burning good i turn on my blower and cover the rest of the wood and let the coals light. once all the coals are good and hot a take alot of wet coal and put it on top and on the edges, more on the edges than on top. this wil make you coke, i give it about 15 min to make some coke and get good an hot and start forgeing. hope this helps.

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  • 5 weeks later...

"Problem is the few minutes of voluminous amounts of smoke! Anyone got any smoke free starting suggestions for coke?"


most of the smoke could be from the paper and can be burnt off. if you reduce the air soon after the fire catches and only have a small amount of coke on top flames will appere on top of your lit fire, sometimes we have to place a piece of lit paper up the flue the start the smoke flowing up.

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There is a great deal of difference in starting a coal fire as opposed to a coke fire. In this instance I am referring to a pure form of coke that has been made in a proper coke making process. First if you are using coal, it is relatively easy to light due to the high levels of volatile compounds contained in coal. Not the least of which are benzene, toluene, light oils and tars. This is only a minor part of over 500+ compounds that are contained in coal. These compounds are easily driven from the coal initially by the relatively low temp. produced by burning paper and wood. It is what makes up the "smoke that you see coming from the fire when first lighting it up, and which bursts into flame so readily once mixed with air and an ignition source(spark from your fire). These gases burn significantly hotter than the paper or wood and are the greater part of raising the temp of the fire so quickly.

Coke which has been made in a proper coke making oven (airtight) is the same coal that many of us use but has been heated to about 1800 degrees F for up to 8 hours and all the volatile chemicals in the coal have been driven off and collected in a by-products plant where they are broken down into a useful form for sale to other industries. After the coking process what remains of the original coal is what is called coke and which is about 95% pure carbon. This product takes a good deal more heat intensity to make it begin to burn after which it will be self sustaining provided it has a constant flow of air. If you turn off the air for any real amount of time the coke fire will go out. One other thing that should be known about coke fires is that they produce tremendous amounts of CO. That is why it is produced for use in Blast Furnaces as the fuel source. The CO given off by the coke is part of the chemical process that causes the reduction of the iron oxide ore in the furnace to be reduced to pure iron.

When a coal fire is burning the yellow smoke and also yellow flame are the burning of the chemicals in the coal. When burning true coke(pure) any flame that is visible is pale blue in colour. The pale blue flame is produce by burning Carbon Monoxide (CO)

Terry

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