You're on thin ice Ron ...... ";"
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Oh well. I will still be expecting you in November, Mike :D
Btw, note that I wrote 'in the time needed to forge a knife' or something to that effect.
A couple of heats to forging temperatures. Would that really make a difference depending on the fire?
Keep going I am learning a lot :)
Given a choice between Coal or Charcoal what would it be ???
LOL yes there is the cost factor for me
I can have all the Charcoal I want for free
Hmmmmm I wonder what the different types of woods will do when it comes to Temperature
I have worked both with good effect. The coal can make some nasty smoke, but up where you live there are no neighbors to upset and the coal is a more concentrated form of BTU. Once you've "coked" the coal (burnt off the sulfur and other crud) it's very good heat. Charcoal can spit at you (wear safety glasses and get used to hot spots on your skin) but it's a good heat too. You can make your own charcoal quite easily and pine/fir is an excellent base wood for that sort of thing. One researcher proved that it only takes 26 acres to keep a smithy/smelter running year round as a renewable supply of wood/charcoal. See Rehder, The Mastery of Fire and it's uses in Antiquity. You won't denude the planet making fuel to work iron or steel.
With all forms of fire, there is a learning curve to ready the fuel, shape the heat and get useful work done.
When I refer to charcoal, I mean lump coal, not briquettes.
A benefit of coal or charcoal is that the heat goes up, whereas with propane, there is typically a horizontal cone of heat.
And unlike propane, neither can go boom.
Of the 2, charcoal is the healthier one in terms of byproducts.
I like charcoal. One thing is it burns relatively quickly, so you need to learn to keep a steady fire going by regularly adding the right amount of charcoal.
I was assuming I could sift out quite a bit of Charcoal from the wood stove all winter long...