On Thu, 29 May 2008 22:42:43 -0700 (PDT), oldjag
wrote:

On May 29, 7:33 am, Carl wrote:
Should charcoal, coal or coke be used for fuel?

There are several different grades of coal, acordding to what I have
read the softer grades work better for smithing, but are harder to get
your hands on. It kind of cokes as you use it.

Recently I have tried making my own charcoal out of soft and hard
wood. Both work well but burns up pretty fast. I put the wood in a
metal 5 gallon bucket with a 1/4" hole in the lid, and hang it over a
fire in a barrel. Not an efficient process for making charcoal but a
good way to spend a cool evening toasting marshmallows with the
kids.

Briquettes are marginal, they are a little better if you break them up
into roughly quarters.

"The Complete Modern Blacksmith" by Weygers (not sure of the spelling)
is a good book to start with. The title is misleading since it's not
complete as it contains nothing on forge welding at all, still it's a
good book.

Cast iron anvils are far from ideal. They dent and mark up way to
easily. In spite of this they are a good way to start since they are
cheap and readily available.

Carl Boyd

I think I'll give the coal a try. The natural charcoal chunks used
burned up pretty fast and let off a lot of sparks. I have a cast iron
anvil which as you noted is a poor substitute for the real deal. One
of these days I'll find a decent cast steel anvil for a good price.
Or a chunk of RR track, I have a piece that Grandad sawed in half to
share with a neighbour sometime around 1946, plus a 4' length donated
by the guy that used to fly me back and forth to work in 1972.
Gerry :-)}
London, Canada