[TheForge] Drilling angles etc/ now sulfur

[Peter Fels & Phoebe Palmer]

Hi Bob;

Bob Ehrenberger wrote:
> Peter,
> I had never heard the term "garden sulfur" before. What is is used for in 
> the garden?
It's used to acidify alkaline soil.
> 
> The reason I'm asking is someone gave me some coal that they found in a shed 
> on a farm that they just got. I tried it out, and it is really nasty stuff. 
> I could barely get it to burn in the forge because of all the fines.  It 
> doesn't coke up like good coal, the fines just go to the bottom of the fire 
> pot and clog things up.  So I sifted the fines out and the chunks burned (so 
> so). Finally I mixed the chunks in with good coal and could get a pretty 
> decent fire out of it. It's not great but I have a 55 gal drum of the stuff 
> that I need to use up and I'd rather burn it than just throw it away.
I once saw Bruce Northridge take similar coal and wash it in a tub of 
water, leaving the fines behind, with success. Someone else had to clean 
it up.
> 
> Any way I was wondering what to do with the fines. When I saw your post, it 
> gave me hope that it might actually be good for my garden, depending on what 
> it does to it. So is high sulfer coal dust safe for the soil? Or is it only 
> good for certan types of soil?  And what would they be?
Coal varies a lot in bonus ingredients, mercury among them..I'd sooner 
use it as pothole filler than put it in a garden.
My friend Ed Nater is one of the foremost experts on the question if you 
really want an in depth answer.pf
> 
> Robert Ehrenberger
> Shelbyville, Mo.
> eforge at centurytel.net
> 
> ----Original message----
> From: Peter Fels & Phoebe Palmer <artgawk at thegrid.net>
> Subject: Re: [TheForge] Drilling angles etc/ now sulfur
> 
> Hi Bruce;
> I've used sulfur a number of times successfully to set steel into stone
> and it lasts indefinitely as far as i know.
> I don't recall it's turning red when molten though.
> I have used garden sulfur. There used to be a huge pile under a chute at
> a local refinery and no one minded if i filled 5 gallon buckets with it.
> It was selling for about $10/# then.
> 
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