Whilst both coal and charcoal are rich in carbon, how they are formed, and the energy density is vastly different. Charcoal is made by heating (typically) wood in the absence of oxygen. What’s left is the non-volatile remnants of the wood. Coal is a rock formed by applying high amounts of heat and pressure for many many years to the remains of plant and animal life (carbon lifeforms). Coal burns hotter and with less ash than charcoal since it isn’t made of wood. I have read that charcoal is “more efficient”, but I don’t know how true that is. Much like saying hot water freezes faster than cold water, there is probably some truth to it, bounded by some caveats. Anyway, coal can be treated the same way wood is made into charcoal to produce coke. Like charcoal to wood, coke is hotter and cleaner than coal.
So, while both produce, fire, yes, you are really wrong. Sorry, not sorry. I don’t like it when people propagate falsehoods because they are convenient. Maybe it’s okay for an analogy, but when presented as a fact, it’s just wrong.
While I am known for disseminating misleading information, it is typically for entertainment purposes only (like sending someone to the basement for a board stretcher) when it comes to forging and metalworking I definitely defer to others and consider myself more of a conduit between the board and the forge masters.
Though I do have every intention of learning a bit about it as I go.
Gas forges are not that hard to make from materials readily available at your local hardware store. There are plenty of tutorials on YouTube for easy make gas forges. My apologies for not being available for the meeting time zones and work make that difficult but I will endeavour to add information when I can.
I’d like to eventually see a set of three classes where we first forge the blade in the metal shop, then build the handle in the wood shop, then a leather sheath in textiles.
You’re right, they really are pretty easy to make. I have a digital book that goes step by step into making the high preassure line and the burner, along with safety precautions.
My initial mock up of a ‘classroom’ forge. Leg brace and overall dimensions will depend on the scrap drums we can get our hands on but can be welded together with metalshop scrap at least for the first. I’d like to make 3 or 4 to really make it feel like a class where members are participating 100% from start to finish.
Would a semi brake drum be too large? Have a large pile of them at the moment…. We used some as tool stand bases, I’d donate them if they are desired. I might have a few that are from the front wheels and they are smaller.
Have a couple of questions; the drawing is for a coal forge, is coal going to be the main forge? Coal vs charcoal: using charcoal will take about 5x the amount of coal, that is a lot of fuel that will need to be kept somewhere, besides, charcoal and coal is available but not cheap. Coal produces A LOT of smoke, if you are going to have the forge inside, is there enough exhaust? I personally prefer a coal forge over a gas forge, but a gas forge is much more “user friendly” and burn and run cleaner. Is a gas forge something you are looking as?
At the moment we are discussing building a few coal starter forges. We also have a plan to generate charcoal. As we teach classes the money we make as well as donations will go to a gas forge, but it will likely be more permanent and will require lengthy discussions with the board, city officials, and planning committees. So I don’t want to think about what that would look like until we “get that hen laid” as my grandmother would say.
Which up until this point in life I always assumed she meant the laying the egg that will hatch the chicken that will become the hen… kind of a cart before the horse colloquialism. Now it just sounds dirty.
I was thinking smaller, like the rears for an e450 van. Not to say heavy equipment drums couldn’t be used but we would have to make some type of castered base to roll it around.
My main idea with the classroom forge was to have the drum/bowl, legs, and air intake to be assembled and disassembled in between classes so we can store them more conveniently between uses.
Though I do wonder now if we could turn a set of heavy equipment drums into a foundry…
Coal forges will have to be 100% outdoors. I drew up a rough draft for a gas forge about 2 months ago and to keep up with the fire code we might have to make it mobile as well, at least if we use high preassure LP to fuel the burner.
This is for a single venturi burner using high preassure LP. I’m also toying with the idea of making a feature creeper 3 burner segmented forge that would let us do long/short pieces or work just depending on opening gates and igniting the number of burners needed. But that is an idea that will need some money and time donations to weld up.
Also for those of us going crazy about what fuel should be used, for the classroom style forge, it really doesn’t matter. We can get in the weeds about coals and coke and wood but all of them will get a basic forge to a decent working temperature if you know what you’re working with.
For an initial ‘novice’ forge having a setup that can take multiple different fuel types is a feature I like. Would I like cleaner fueled forges, you bet. But for starting out something that won’t care what we throw at it is nice.
Anything thats big enough to support refractive material and the burner can be a gas forge. Its the gas supply equipment cost that makes it a bear to start with first.
This is from my Bible of Fire. We could probably go cheaper and get a 30psi max regulator since 60psi would be overkill for any forge for Make. After this is made then next step would be a burner.
