Tomas Wilhelmsson wrote:

Does anyone have any real info on this? .. A page that illustrates stuff
maybe? .. as i cant find a blacksmith around where i live and especialy
not one still using coal/coke/charcoal for the fire i cant realy find any info on the subject .. and everywhere i find something "coal is
turned into coke and the fire has to be managed carefully" why thank you .. now how do i manage the fire in the right way? ..

Assuming you have a coal forge, you want use damp, soft (bituminous)
coal, not hard (anthracite) coal. If you don't have a sprinkler can,
make one, you'll need it. Start by filling the fire pot with several
pieces of wadded up paper, followed by some wood scraps (2" x 4" lumber
work great), followed by a thin covering of damp, green coal. (After
the initial fire, you will use coke in this step).

Mound a good bit of coal around your firepot, keep it damp, you'll use
it later.

Light the paper and turn the air blast on low if you have a blower,
crank the blower slowly if by hand, or pump the billows lightly. When
the fire spreads to the wood, you'll need a bit more air. As the coal
catches fire it will smoke like hell! Add more coal, more air, and make
more smoke. The coal should be flaming now. Add more coal until you
have a mound of flaming, smoking coal in your firepot.

Turn off the air, quit cranking, stop pumping the billows - it's lit.

As the impurities are burned out of the coal in your firepot, coke is
formed (the coal "cokes up"). Coke burns hotter than coal, but it burns
to ash. As a consequence, you must constantly tend the fire by
maintaining a supply of burning coke, coal in the process of forming
coke around the coke, and green coal around the coal in the process of
coking. This is done by constantly moving the green coal from around
your firepot to the edge of the firepot, then to the fire. Use your air
blast to maintain your fire as the work requires.

this no one seems to have thought of putting up on the web? : ..
atleast that i cant find :

Managing a coal fire is an art unto itself. I've purposely left out the
tricky stuff and I've failed to mention the dreaded clinker, but this'll
get you started.

(its the coal/coke things im most after as i cant afford to burn
truckloads of charcoal :P )

Please see http://www.anvilfire.com and http://www.iforgeiron.com
for much better descriptions of the process.
--
Tom Stovall, CJF
Farrier & Blacksmith

http://www.katyforge.com

"That government governs best that governs least."
-Thomas Jefferson