[TheForge] Re: Metallurgical coke

[Mike Spencer]

> Anyone know where I can get met coke in the New England area? I'm in CT.
>
> The bigger companies seem to be carrying 1/8" - 3/8" not the chunks
> that I've seen for forging.

Isn't that approximately what the Brits call "breeze"?  IIRC from
seeing it 30 years ago, they use ca. 1/2" chunks and like it very
much, can't understand why anyone would want to use smelly, messy
green coal.  I'm guessing that the reason the Brits use it is because
it's a byproduct from screening coke for industrial metalurgical
products and so cheaper than nut size.

Although 1/8" does seem a little small and likely to get lost.  A
solution to losing too many fines, along with the ashes, through the
tuyere might be to use a side draft forge. [1]

(I'm presenly building a portable 4-tuyere forge for long heats.  But
my next experiment with forge design will be a side-draft.  The late
Arch McKnight of Milton, NS used one -- a rarity in NS -- and it
worked very well for him and for his father-in-law from whom he
acquired the shop circa 1935.)


- Mike

[1] http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/tuyere.html

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