Thank you for the video. I use anthracite in my forge and I always had problems. Now I have much better and concentrated heat after taking your advice! I now start a good hot charcoal fire first, use only nut sized anthracite coal, constant fan for draft starting before adding the coal, and add more coal when it burns down about 1/3 of the way. Thanks again
I like the way you made a low/med/high setting with your forge. I was thinking about using anthracite since it produces a lot less smoke than bituminous. It's also readily available near me.
+eviltwinx I had fun designing that forge. It has more pilot holes, so eventually I will make an even bigger setting. I just can't beat the price im getting this anthracite.
Thank you for producing this video. Through trial and error I found out enough to do some forging with anthracite. Your video showed me some more techniques I should be using! Now I can toss all of those directions that assume I'm using bituminous coal.
You ever notice men that have coal or wood burning stoves in their homes spend an inordinate amount of time watching the fire. There's just something soothing about a fire properly controlled. 🌭🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Back in the 60's I worked for EDAVILLE railroad in December for a few years each December as a locomotive fireman 2 foot gauge locomotive's burning soft coal. We parked the engines overnight in a Quonset hut which we used kerosene space heaters to keep the engines from freezing. In the morning shake down the grates and clean out the ash pans and then use slab pine wood we got from a local sawmill, throw in a kerosene soaked rag into the firebox after throwing in a cup of fuel onto the pine wood then used a kerosene soaked rag into the firebox after lighting the rag the closed the firebox door and wait he'd for the fire to take off with natural convection. Usually within 30 minutes or so we would have enough steam to work the blower which created a draught. Once the wood was burning nicely we added soft coal usually after we had steam to work the draught. Working pressure was 160 pounds of steam and even with the open area at the rear of the water/coal tank the rest of the cab was fully enclosed and very warm in the cab. Worked trips on the mainline with a 10 or 12 car steam heated train and we had to fill the water tank. The mainline was 5 1/2 miles in a large loop going around the cranberry bogs
great video twan! the one thing I would like to point out about the difference between anthracite coal (heating ) and bituminous coal (forging ) is... heating coal has more ash and less coke. forging coal has more coke and clinker / impurities.. coke is a by product of coal burning and is therefore not a separate product all together. coke is what you want to forge in not green coal. if you are starting the forge for the first time with green coal you must wait until you have enough coke in the center of the hearth before placing your metal in the fire. this will be indicated by the tall yellow flames going down to short blue flames. that is how you know you are ready :-) hope this will help you out and your subscribers! Thanks for another great video God bless
Your comments on waiting for coke is for bituminous right? My understanding is that coke is mostly the carbon that is left when most of the impurities (yellow sulfur smoke, and clinker) burn out of bituminous coal. (same thing as making charcoal out of wood) Bituminous has a much lower carbon content than Anthracite. The stuff I found said bituminous was 50-87% carbon. And Anthracite was 87-98% carbon. So coke and anthracite are made up of mostly the same element, anthracite is just WAY more dense. With the exception of getting more intense, my flames pretty much stay that way the entire time I've got the forge running . If you watch my 'Time warp working fast part 2' video the time lapse was about 45 minutes of continuous forge running, and the flames never changed. My fire would go out before I got short blue flames. I don't have easy access to bituminous and I can get anthracite SO cheap, its not worth looking into alternatives. Thanks for the great, informative comment!! On another note. You have said you do stuff for SOFA...... Do you know when the quadstate is this year?
Thats the problem I had when I first got this stuff. I was used to a small supply of bituminous coal that was given to me to test out my grandpas forge. Then I got this stuff and I couldn't get it to light. I didn't have enough air, and I didn't have a hot enough fire to get the coal started.
I'm glad that you mostly refrained from editing and using music. I think that far to many how-to videos are ruined by music and editing. It interferes with the learning process. Yes the video was a little longer, but it was so much better in real time. Struggles/failures and successes are all a part of learning. Thanks for the video...
Thank you! That was my goal with this video. Like I said at the beginning of the video... This is the unedited video I wanted to find, but couldn't. Your comment fits perfectly with what I am doing right now! I am making a video about failure!! Thanks for watching!
Made it all 28:21 and loved it. Only complaint is leave the subtitles up longer ! I’m a carpenter and blacksmith and I CANT READ THAT FAST LOL. Loved the video you have a new subscriber. I started in the beginning on Bituminous coal but when I split from the shop I had started with bituminous coal was hard to get and crazy expensive. I’ve been using anthracite for a long time now. There is definitely a learning curve and it’s not the easiest fuel to work with. But once you are able to man up and learn how it works. I really don’t think it holds a candle to bituminous. It’s like learning to weld with a MIG welder that’s already set up. Hell anyone can do that and get a decent weld. But if you really want to learn to weld you need and old tomb stone stick welder and some 6010 rod! That’ll learn ya to weld lol. The lady welders of instagram will get that joke
I also use the anthracite. I have good, and I have great days with it. Some days it is lit in 4 mins a d hot enough I have to eagle eye my work while it soaking in the fire. Some days 20 mins and it is just starting to warm. Still- I can make 2 pounds burn at welding temps for 6 hours sometimes more.
@@WarpedLegacy its definitely worth it though. Price, heat, and heat time are all excellent if its available near you. Thanks for the awesome videos, I'm really digging the channel
hello. new hobby smith for about 2 months now. as like you the most available supply of solid fuel for the forge is anthracite. for me a couple of handfuls of lump charcoal lit and going is enough to get the anthracite going and heating metal within 15 to 20 minutes. going to subscribe found you today and like your content.
Christopher Lang thanks! That makes you sub #70! That's basically what I usually do. Only I've been using briquettes because they spark less than lump when you add air. The wood was a last minute fix because I ran out of charcoal.
+Christopher Lang I've used both. Started with lump, but later switched. If I'm grilling though, it's lump all the way... And maybe a few chunks of apple wood! Love lump for grilling, it just crackles and shoots to many wild sparks when I add air to it. Thanks for the great input!
Ive tried anthricite coal before with forging and it worked ok, but I got a bit of coke used for cast iron/steel foundries. The coke burns much hotter, doesnt stick together, and puts out an insane amount of heat compared to coal while having no real smoke or smell at all except a slight sweet smell. If you had lived around here, I would show you a few spots to grab it for free to try out, lol.
+Chirpy's Tinkerings from my understanding coke and anthracite burn very similar. Their makeup is very similar, anthracite is just much denser. And a lot of the "smoke" in this video was steam. It was very wet coal. Also there is no way I'm gonna beat the price of this coal.
yea, I tried different types of coal in my one old furnace ages ago, and didnt like coal at all. The good stuff just turned to a gel kinda, but stuck itself to the refractory lining, then ripped chunks out of the lining when trying to clean the clinkers and such out, just destroying the lining. The coke never did that.
You might think about making either a heavy metal plate (or two), or tapered firebrick(s), that you could add to the back (and front) of your forge "trench", in order to reduce the overall size of your firepot. It may not be a big issue if you are able to get your coal cheap enough, but limiting the size of the fire would also be useful when you want to only heat a smaller section of metal. Bigger isn't always better. With the setup you have, I think it would be fairly simple to adjust the size of your fire with just a couple firebricks or metal plates. You could add flat plate in front and back just to keep coal & coke from falling into the trench you aren't using (you could even shape blocks of wood for filler).
+Brian Neeley I've been meaning to make a plate to stick on the back side like you are saying, just haven't gotten around to it. Don't want one on the front though, I designed it this way on purpose so I could put long pieces in without any restrictions. It's more for keeping the coal on the forge though. I have had pretty good success making the fire the size I aimed to. I love having control of how wide the airflow is. It just ends up creeping bigger if I let it. Thanks for the great comments, you seem to put a lot of thoughts into your comments, and I appreciate that.
..I don't use paper. Try Pinecones. I'll put 4 or 6 in the Firepot, then stack some kindling around it. Set the pinecones on fire with a small propane torch then open the Air up a bit. When that gets to going perty good i'll add about a gallon of homemade charcoal. When that gets to going about a 1/2 gallon of the Fresh coal. After that gets going i'll go to heaping on the coal. About every time i used paper it tends to smother the fire or keeps the air from going thru to the fire. And, Pinecones give you the Snap, Crackle Pop like a Good Fire. Nice Job!!...
+Ol James pinecones would work great. Would probably spread less mess in the shop too! But I have Paper. A friend gave me boxes of old printer paper... The kind that came all connected with holes on the side... He had boxes and boxes of it. I got enough to last me a while. Love the snap crackle pop of a good fire!
To avoid this in the future make up a checklist of step by step what to do to light the forge safely. Make it out of sheet steel and hang it where you can see it easily.
Hey twan, I've been forging for about 2 months and I use anthracite. Are you able to cut the air supply off between heats? I seem to burn a lot of fuel. I would say 10lbs an hour. I saw a video of another Smith using anthracite that said 5lbs lasted him more than four hours.
I can't really. I've been able to get away with shutting it off sometimes if I need to shoot a video (gets rid of noise... My air is loud!). But even then I have lost the fire before and had to start over. Anthracite likes it's air.
+Rick Nowlin I haven't had much experience with traditional blacksmithing (bituminous) coal. I've had a little. So I'll share what I know. I feel like anthracite gets hotter, anthracite produces much less smoke on startup. I was using a freshly opened bag of coal that had been out of the rain, so much of the "smoke" in this video was steam. Anthracite doesn't stick together like bituminous. I would rather have anthracite. The only cons to anthracite in my opinion are 1)it takes a lot of heat to start 2)it takes a lot of air 3)it doesn't stick together, so you can't make a tunnel to put your work into. If I was using a hand blower or a smaller blower I would probably need to switch to bituminous.
It burns really hot, I stopped before It got to its peak. When I first got it and I was experimenting with it, I turned the blower all the way up to see how hot I could get it. I threw on a thick piece of sheet metal(dont remember what it was but It was thick enough you couldn't bend it easily with your hands) and in about 5-10 seconds i saw all the tempering colors go by, then the middle started glowing.... glowing after just a few seconds from COLD. I then started worrying about my forge melting. At this point I was on my grandpas old brake drum forge. You def have to pay attention to this stuff, It can get REALLY hot, but if you dont have enough air, it wont get hot at all.
Think you video ran the wrong day.I am learning .If you can have a fire without ventilation open I will the hard coal a noughter chance. I am new and my blower might be to weak
Gotta get a good hot fire before you add the anthracite, and after you add the coal keep the air going strong. Anthracite won't burn without a HOT fire and a lot of air.
DON'T completely snuff out your flames to start with and it will build much more quickly with far less smoke! If you smother it, open a hole in the middle, where the flames are! You almost made me want to jump through the screen and show you how to get it started! You have a 28 minute video where you would have had everything lit and going well about 7 minutes in if YOU HADN'T SMOTHERED YOU FIRE!!!!!!!!!
DUDE! This is the first video of yours I’ve ever seen! AND IM A MINUTE IN AND I LOVE IT! Subscribed!
Thank you for the video. I use anthracite in my forge and I always had problems. Now I have much better and concentrated heat after taking your advice! I now start a good hot charcoal fire first, use only nut sized anthracite coal, constant fan for draft starting before adding the coal, and add more coal when it burns down about 1/3 of the way. Thanks again
Thank you! This is the video I've been looking for.
Glad you found it! I wanted a video like this when I was starting.
I like the way you made a low/med/high setting with your forge. I was thinking about using anthracite since it produces a lot less smoke than bituminous. It's also readily available near me.
+eviltwinx I had fun designing that forge. It has more pilot holes, so eventually I will make an even bigger setting. I just can't beat the price im getting this anthracite.
Thank you for producing this video. Through trial and error I found out enough to do some forging with anthracite. Your video showed me some more techniques I should be using! Now I can toss all of those directions that assume I'm using bituminous coal.
You ever notice men that have coal or wood burning stoves in their homes spend an inordinate amount of time watching the fire. There's just something soothing about a fire properly controlled.
🌭🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Back in the 60's I worked for EDAVILLE railroad in December for a few years each December as a locomotive fireman 2 foot gauge locomotive's burning soft coal. We parked the engines overnight in a Quonset hut which we used kerosene space heaters to keep the engines from freezing. In the morning shake down the grates and clean out the ash pans and then use slab pine wood we got from a local sawmill, throw in a kerosene soaked rag into the firebox after throwing in a cup of fuel onto the pine wood then used a kerosene soaked rag into the firebox after lighting the rag the closed the firebox door and wait he'd for the fire to take off with natural convection. Usually within 30 minutes or so we would have enough steam to work the blower which created a draught. Once the wood was burning nicely we added soft coal usually after we had steam to work the draught. Working pressure was 160 pounds of steam and even with the open area at the rear of the water/coal tank the rest of the cab was fully enclosed and very warm in the cab. Worked trips on the mainline with a 10 or 12 car steam heated train and we had to fill the water tank. The mainline was 5 1/2 miles in a large loop going around the cranberry bogs
great video twan! the one thing I would like to point out about the difference between anthracite coal (heating ) and bituminous coal (forging ) is...
heating coal has more ash and less coke. forging coal has more coke and clinker / impurities.. coke is a by product of coal burning and is therefore not a separate product all together. coke is what you want to forge in not green coal. if you are starting the forge for the first time with green coal you must wait until you have enough coke in the center of the hearth before placing your metal in the fire. this will be indicated by the tall yellow flames going down to short blue flames. that is how you know you are ready :-) hope this will help you out and your subscribers!
Thanks for another great video God bless
Your comments on waiting for coke is for bituminous right? My understanding is that coke is mostly the carbon that is left when most of the impurities (yellow sulfur smoke, and clinker) burn out of bituminous coal. (same thing as making charcoal out of wood) Bituminous has a much lower carbon content than Anthracite. The stuff I found said bituminous was 50-87% carbon. And Anthracite was 87-98% carbon. So coke and anthracite are made up of mostly the same element, anthracite is just WAY more dense. With the exception of getting more intense, my flames pretty much stay that way the entire time I've got the forge running . If you watch my 'Time warp working fast part 2' video the time lapse was about 45 minutes of continuous forge running, and the flames never changed. My fire would go out before I got short blue flames. I don't have easy access to bituminous and I can get anthracite SO cheap, its not worth looking into alternatives. Thanks for the great, informative comment!! On another note. You have said you do stuff for SOFA...... Do you know when the quadstate is this year?
That's really intersting! I've never seen someone light anthracite before.
Thats the problem I had when I first got this stuff. I was used to a small supply of bituminous coal that was given to me to test out my grandpas forge. Then I got this stuff and I couldn't get it to light. I didn't have enough air, and I didn't have a hot enough fire to get the coal started.
I'm glad that you mostly refrained from editing and using music. I think that far to many how-to videos are ruined by music and editing. It interferes with the learning process.
Yes the video was a little longer, but it was so much better in real time. Struggles/failures and successes are all a part of learning.
Thanks for the video...
Thank you! That was my goal with this video. Like I said at the beginning of the video... This is the unedited video I wanted to find, but couldn't. Your comment fits perfectly with what I am doing right now! I am making a video about failure!! Thanks for watching!
Made it all 28:21 and loved it. Only complaint is leave the subtitles up longer ! I’m a carpenter and blacksmith and I CANT READ THAT FAST LOL. Loved the video you have a new subscriber. I started in the beginning on Bituminous coal but when I split from the shop I had started with bituminous coal was hard to get and crazy expensive. I’ve been using anthracite for a long time now. There is definitely a learning curve and it’s not the easiest fuel to work with. But once you are able to man up and learn how it works. I really don’t think it holds a candle to bituminous. It’s like learning to weld with a MIG welder that’s already set up. Hell anyone can do that and get a decent weld. But if you really want to learn to weld you need and old tomb stone stick welder and some 6010 rod! That’ll learn ya to weld lol. The lady welders of instagram will get that joke
I also use the anthracite. I have good, and I have great days with it.
Some days it is lit in 4 mins a d hot enough I have to eagle eye my work while it soaking in the fire.
Some days 20 mins and it is just starting to warm.
Still- I can make 2 pounds burn at welding temps for 6 hours sometimes more.
This stuff is temperamental... But treat it right and it gets HOT!
@@WarpedLegacy its definitely worth it though. Price, heat, and heat time are all excellent if its available near you. Thanks for the awesome videos, I'm really digging the channel
hello. new hobby smith for about 2 months now. as like you the most available supply of solid fuel for the forge is anthracite. for me a couple of handfuls of lump charcoal lit and going is enough to get the anthracite going and heating metal within 15 to 20 minutes. going to subscribe found you today and like your content.
Christopher Lang thanks! That makes you sub #70! That's basically what I usually do. Only I've been using briquettes because they spark less than lump when you add air. The wood was a last minute fix because I ran out of charcoal.
the lump charcoal I think burns hotter and longer than briquettes, I think you will find you use less and get the coal going faster. just my 2 cents
+Christopher Lang I've used both. Started with lump, but later switched. If I'm grilling though, it's lump all the way... And maybe a few chunks of apple wood! Love lump for grilling, it just crackles and shoots to many wild sparks when I add air to it. Thanks for the great input!
sounds like we have traveled the same path to starting anthracite ending at different preferences. good luck on your journey.
Ive tried anthricite coal before with forging and it worked ok, but I got a bit of coke used for cast iron/steel foundries. The coke burns much hotter, doesnt stick together, and puts out an insane amount of heat compared to coal while having no real smoke or smell at all except a slight sweet smell. If you had lived around here, I would show you a few spots to grab it for free to try out, lol.
+Chirpy's Tinkerings from my understanding coke and anthracite burn very similar. Their makeup is very similar, anthracite is just much denser. And a lot of the "smoke" in this video was steam. It was very wet coal. Also there is no way I'm gonna beat the price of this coal.
yea, I tried different types of coal in my one old furnace ages ago, and didnt like coal at all. The good stuff just turned to a gel kinda, but stuck itself to the refractory lining, then ripped chunks out of the lining when trying to clean the clinkers and such out, just destroying the lining. The coke never did that.
You might think about making either a heavy metal plate (or two), or tapered firebrick(s), that you could add to the back (and front) of your forge "trench", in order to reduce the overall size of your firepot. It may not be a big issue if you are able to get your coal cheap enough, but limiting the size of the fire would also be useful when you want to only heat a smaller section of metal. Bigger isn't always better. With the setup you have, I think it would be fairly simple to adjust the size of your fire with just a couple firebricks or metal plates. You could add flat plate in front and back just to keep coal & coke from falling into the trench you aren't using (you could even shape blocks of wood for filler).
+Brian Neeley I've been meaning to make a plate to stick on the back side like you are saying, just haven't gotten around to it. Don't want one on the front though, I designed it this way on purpose so I could put long pieces in without any restrictions. It's more for keeping the coal on the forge though. I have had pretty good success making the fire the size I aimed to. I love having control of how wide the airflow is. It just ends up creeping bigger if I let it. Thanks for the great comments, you seem to put a lot of thoughts into your comments, and I appreciate that.
Hey I found it thanks this has been extremely helpful
Glad I could help!!
..I don't use paper. Try Pinecones. I'll put 4 or 6 in the Firepot, then stack some kindling around it. Set the pinecones on fire with a small propane torch then open the Air up a bit. When that gets to going perty good i'll add about a gallon of homemade charcoal. When that gets to going about a 1/2 gallon of the Fresh coal. After that gets going i'll go to heaping on the coal. About every time i used paper it tends to smother the fire or keeps the air from going thru to the fire. And, Pinecones give you the Snap, Crackle Pop like a Good Fire. Nice Job!!...
+Ol James pinecones would work great. Would probably spread less mess in the shop too! But I have Paper. A friend gave me boxes of old printer paper... The kind that came all connected with holes on the side... He had boxes and boxes of it. I got enough to last me a while. Love the snap crackle pop of a good fire!
To avoid this in the future make up a checklist of step by step what to do to light the forge safely. Make it out of sheet steel and hang it where you can see it easily.
Hey twan, I've been forging for about 2 months and I use anthracite. Are you able to cut the air supply off between heats? I seem to burn a lot of fuel. I would say 10lbs an hour. I saw a video of another Smith using anthracite that said 5lbs lasted him more than four hours.
I can't really. I've been able to get away with shutting it off sometimes if I need to shoot a video (gets rid of noise... My air is loud!). But even then I have lost the fire before and had to start over. Anthracite likes it's air.
I also tend to go through fuel really quickly.
What kind of blower do you have if I may ask
It's an electric leaf blower.
Could I add a adjustable switch to my current blower and make it have different settings like you leaf blower?
Depending on your blower it's possible, but I don't know what you would need or how to do it.
@@WarpedLegacy ok
Hey nice video. How do you like anthracite vs traditional blacksmithing coal?
+Rick Nowlin I haven't had much experience with traditional blacksmithing (bituminous) coal. I've had a little. So I'll share what I know. I feel like anthracite gets hotter, anthracite produces much less smoke on startup. I was using a freshly opened bag of coal that had been out of the rain, so much of the "smoke" in this video was steam. Anthracite doesn't stick together like bituminous. I would rather have anthracite. The only cons to anthracite in my opinion are 1)it takes a lot of heat to start 2)it takes a lot of air 3)it doesn't stick together, so you can't make a tunnel to put your work into. If I was using a hand blower or a smaller blower I would probably need to switch to bituminous.
Looks like once it gets going it burns pretty hot!
It burns really hot, I stopped before It got to its peak. When I first got it and I was experimenting with it, I turned the blower all the way up to see how hot I could get it. I threw on a thick piece of sheet metal(dont remember what it was but It was thick enough you couldn't bend it easily with your hands) and in about 5-10 seconds i saw all the tempering colors go by, then the middle started glowing.... glowing after just a few seconds from COLD. I then started worrying about my forge melting. At this point I was on my grandpas old brake drum forge. You def have to pay attention to this stuff, It can get REALLY hot, but if you dont have enough air, it wont get hot at all.
Install a draught pipe, 3 inch is more than enough and is easily closed off without opening a door.
Think you video ran the wrong day.I am learning .If you can have a fire without ventilation open I will the hard coal a noughter chance.
I am new and my blower might be to weak
Ventilation is important! And anthracite does need a lot of air. Def more air than bituminous coal.
I cannot get my tractor supply nut anthrecite to burn at all
Gotta get a good hot fire before you add the anthracite, and after you add the coal keep the air going strong. Anthracite won't burn without a HOT fire and a lot of air.
@@WarpedLegacy ill try
So refine your skills
Not sure what this is referring to.... But I'm always trying to refine my skills!
Shop vac for your cleaning/dust issues there bro...
+Michael Slack that would work pretty well. I should get one.
If you light it with charcoal only, you'll have a lot less smoke. At least, that's with my anthracite.
M.T.B. Crafts I usually do. I just ran out... And yes you are right about there being less smoke.
DON'T completely snuff out your flames to start with and it will build much more quickly with far less smoke!
If you smother it, open a hole in the middle, where the flames are!
You almost made me want to jump through the screen and show you how to get it started!
You have a 28 minute video where you would have had everything lit and going well about 7 minutes in if YOU HADN'T SMOTHERED YOU FIRE!!!!!!!!!
Sorry I did not say thanks and I am thanking you late but thanks.
You are very welcome! I have fun making videos, and am very happy when they help someone!
Good grief. Hit the switch and cook with gas!
+Dace Koenigsknecht that's what I thought when I was editing it.... Got the job done though!