Corn?

[DustinHall]

Had a thought... hopefully not a stupid one. Would corn be a good fuel for a coal forge? Seems to burn pretty hot and long in corn burners...

 

[Will Leavitt]

I've heard of people doing it.

 

[James_Terrio]

I thought you were going to ask about stabilizing corn cobs for handle material. I've seen it done for pens. Looks kinda cool *shrug*

 

[go mike]

The problem with using corn, is it has to be fed though an auger usually, and you might need to have a special stove to get it to work. If it works with a regular forge, that would be sweet.

 

[DustinHall]

Lol, never heard of that James!

Looks like some testing is in order...
Are you saying the corn has to be ground up, Mike?

 

[go mike]

Here's a wiki page about corn burners
http://forum.iburncorn.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Edit: Just found this link, Don't know if you've already seen it: http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f7/corn-forge-9259/

 

[DustinHall]

Thanks for the links, Mike. Sounds like it'll be just fine to use as fuel.

 

[JTknives]

I thought you were going to ask about stabilizing corn cobs for handle material. I've seen it done for pens. Looks kinda cool *shrug*

Ya thats what i thought, just soak it in a bunch of supper glue "polish it and kazzam a knife" handle. hehe i could not stop my self

 

[strahd71]

i dont know but i have heard that split peas have a higher BTU rating than corn

jake

 

[JTknives]

i dont know but i have heard that split peas have a higher BTU rating than corn

jake

how about beans, thy make a lot of gas :foot:

 

[James_Terrio]

Ya thats what I thought, just soak it in a bunch of super glue, "polish it and kazzam a knife" handle. hehe I could not stop my self

Heh!

Here's a link to a pen made from stabilized corn cob... Here's the same outfit's main page.

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Is it me or does the stabilized corn look like mammoth's tooth a little?
Looks cool anyway.

Pad

 

[Marion David Poff]

On a side note, I understand that if a stove/forge etc will burn corn, then it is properly a 'biomass' stove, and you can, with minor adjustment get it to burn just about anything, if the anything has a reasonably high caloric value and is properly dried. Think peach pits, cherry pits... anyway, materials that have been traditionally considered waste.

Biomass stoves are pretty cool. As is fluidized bed combustion and landfill methane plants....

I now return you to your regularly flowing topic....

Marion

 

[MSCantrell]

Hey Dustin,
I found out last night that the Michigan Artist Blacksmith Association finally got its delivery of coal in this week. $14 for 35 lbs (5gal bucket) for non-MABA members. It's the good clean bituminous stuff, the right kind for forging.
The source is up in Rives Junction- I can connect you to the guy if you're interested.
Send me a PM.

Mike

 

[DustinHall]

Hey Dustin,
I found out last night that the Michigan Artist Blacksmith Association finally got its delivery of coal in this week. $14 for 35 lbs (5gal bucket) for non-MABA members. It's the good clean bituminous stuff, the right kind for forging.
The source is up in Rives Junction- I can connect you to the guy if you're interested.
Send me a PM.

Mike

Hey, Mike! Haven't seen you around in a while. Never heard of the MABA but, it sounds cool. I'm wondering how long 35 lbs of coal would actually last...
Thanks for the heads up! I might check it out.

 

[Sweany]

A smith in our Blacksmith club used a sack of corn in his forge.

HE said it works but he gets more miles to the gallon from coal...

 

[DustinHall]

I tried the corn today and it didn't work that well for some reason.

 

[go mike]

Was it dry enough? You might also have to have a fire started with something else then put corn in.

Just suggestions, because I haven't tried it.

 

[jrhart50]

Well the only corn i have worked with was on my foot and i cut it off with a sharp knife but i don't think this counts.

 

[DustinHall]

It seemed pretty dry, Mike. I had a small bed of coals that I dumped it on but, it basically just wanted to smolder.