[TheForge] Frustratin first attempt

[Mike Spencer]

> I dug out me last washtub full o' "Pennsylvania Hard"...

Is that anthracite?  If it is, it isn't going to coke up much if any.

I started out using a rivet forge and either pea coal or stoker coal
-- assorted smallish chunks and fines.  I put two (hard) fire bricks
on edge on either side of the tuyere, about 6" apart, then dumped sand
in on either side of them to hold them in place.  Built the fire
between the bricks which served as a crude but effective firepot.  I
used that setup for several years until I moved out of the dirt floor
wood shed into a bigger building.

At that point I was on approximately a zero budget, no electricity or
phone so finding and going to fetch refractory materials wasn't an
option.  The sand was hardly ever a problem but you could achieve the
same result more durably and tidily using fire clay, stoneware clay
with a lot of grog in it, castable refractory or what have you.

> Figger I probably also need ta break up me coal into smaller
> chunks...

Anything much bigger than walnuts and it's going to be hard to
maintain a nice small to medium sized fire.  IMHO, uniform pea coal is
optimal.  I had one load that was random sizes from fines up to the
size of two softballs.  I built a crusher from two pieces of 2"x12"
channel about a foot long with a 5-foot handle on it.  Clunky but
nothing went through bigger than a golf ball and it made lots of small
bits.  Worked.

- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                 						   /V\ 
mspencer@tallships.ca            						  /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/						  ^^-^^

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