Interesting thread about charcoal forgeing.

Yvsa

Yvsa

Joined
May 18, 1999
Messages
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Tim Lively started a thread over in the Shop talk forum about the superiority of forgeing with charcoal.
There was an article about the Neo-Tribal group he belongs to in Blade magazine a while back.If I remember right they are only allowed to take off no more than 10 % to finish one of thier blades done with primitive equipment.

I found it an interesting thread.You can find it here if I did it right.
http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum12/HTML/001674.html

Comments?
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>>>>---¥vsa---->®

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Yvsa,
Charcoal is much cleaner than any coal.
So why do Smiths use coal in general forge work, one might ask??
coal is cheaper than charcoal (without making or gathering the stuff yourself) and it burns longer and the fire is capable of much higher heats; and is better suited for larger or heavy parts.
The biggest down side to coal is the amount of impurities it introduces to the steel or iron, like sulphur. Sulphur is an aid in machiening, but makes it difficult to weld or harden the steel.
I was going to reply to a thread some time ago about forging, but by the time I found someone to type for me the time for a reply was past. Now that I've got both hands again....
Forging does NOT remove carbon from the steel. Yvsa, I know that you didn't post that silly idea, but I'll address it here anyway.
The thing that removes carbon from a steel in the forge is: Excessive heat.... This is the number One mistake made in any Smithy. It doesn't matter if the Smith is a beginner or a Master. A Master can have too many things going on at once and be in a hurry, causing some piece to be in the fire too long. Especially if it happens to be a smaller piece while heating a bigger one at the same time.
Charcoal is more forgiving than coal, because the fire has to be tended itself more frequently, but if rushed a Master can still screw things up too. And while it doesn't get as hat as a coal fire it can still burn steel, if it gets enough air.
When Shop 2 got the powered air supply, I wonder how much steel was lost while they learned to regulate the volume of air!
Dan
 
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