Starting a charcoal forge

S

SilentLynx

Joined
Aug 17, 2011
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Hey guys, I am going to be building a small brick forge that will be fueled by charcoal in my backyard. This is the first time I have ever done something like this so I was just wondering if you guys could give me some tips on starting the forge. Should I just dump some charcoal and pour some lighter fluid on there and light it? Again I have no clue so help would be appreciated.

Thanks guys,

-Lynx
 
On a separate note I was debating what to use for my "bellows" system, I have a 2HP shop vac, should I use the shop vac or would that be too much for my small forge?
 
I use a torch to light my charcoal. It doesn't take very long to get enough coals going to get it all burning once the air is turned on.

I have no idea if the shop vac will serve for the air supply or not. Give it a try and see.

My "forge" used to be made from a coffee can but yesterday I upgraded to a paint can.

- Paul Meske
 
Lynx, I have an old wood burning stove I converted to a forge I use my shop vac for the blower too. The best way I have found is to take a length of black pipe and drill holes (1/8" or so) all Down the pipe like a burner would be setup. Place it between two fire bricks and stack your coal on top. Will give you a nice even airsource without sending embers flying everywhere. Also what kind of charcoal are you using? I use charwood, readily available and burns cleaner and hotter than say kingsford will.
 
A shop vac is way overkill for a charcoal. A shop vac is noisy, uses a ton of power, and will have to be throttled to a small portion of its output. If you are scrounging a hair dryer with the heating turned off/disabled will be much better. You will still want to add either a gate valve or an adjustable dump so you can adjust the volume/pressure of the delivered air.

Edited to say that if that is all you have, then by all means make it work (it will). It is better than not having your forge up and running, its just not an "ideal" source for a typical charcoal forge. Have fun and be safe.
Steve
 
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I use a coal forge but I think the same would apply to charcoal (I'm extrapolating here, but I shouldn't be too far off).
I use a small squirrel cage fan from a central heating system (the fan to feed the burner, not one for distributing hot air through the house). Works perfectly.

I start up my fire by putting a layer of ~ 1-2" of used coal (=coke) in the firepot. I think you can start with fresh charcoal since that doesn't have any bituminous content that first needs to burn off, and charcoal catches really easily. I place a fire lighter cube (the compressed wood fiber kind, I hate the white chemical ones, smell bad!!) on top and light it. I take a piece of ~5", long fiber wood (pine, birch, whatever), about 1" in cross section (they sell those as long chips to start your fireplace) and put it on my anvil. I then hammer on the side to break up the fibers so that I end up with ~1/8" thick, long splinters. I break those in two without separating the halves. I can then use them to build a tipi over the fire starter. When they start catching fire I start the fan with the choke slightly open. I then start carefully raking some coal against the fire, open the choke a bit more, rake some more coal etc until the fire is burning hot and is covered with coal. I poke a few holes in the coal blanket to allow a few jets to escape which in turn light the gaseous smoke coming from the coal. Wait a couple of minutes and I'm done. Well, to get a really nice working fire with coal takes a bit longer after that, but with charcoal this should be about it...

Cheers rOdy
 
What I find works well:

Take a full sheet of newspaper, twist and kind of coil it until you have a wadded newspaper donut. It should have a hole about the size of your fist in the middle.

Empty out the charcoal above the tuyere/grate. Put a small layer of charcoal on the grate. Put your paper donut on the charcoal. Fill the center of the donut loosely with small bits of dry wood, or with charcoal. Rake charcoal up around the sides of the donut.

Turn the blast on low, and light the paper. I do this with a propane hand torch. Almost infallibly the paper will ignite the fuel in the center really well, with the blast still low heap a little coal on top of the paper and burning fuel at the center. I got this method from Lorelei Sims' book, it's the easiest way I've tried.

You'll learn how to tend the fire beyond this point to do what you want it to. I started with charcoal and now use mostly propane, but have a coal forge that I still use. I start coal with this method, using wood or charcoal as starter fuel inside the paper. My coal forge has a hand crank blower.
 
I just wad up some news paper, put it at the bottom, stack some charcoal over the top and give it some air. After you get it going, then add more charcoal over the top.

Once it all gets lit, (if it’s hardwood charcoal), let it cherry out before you start forging with it. This will prevent it from popping and sparking so much. Build the fire up fairly large, burn it down, then build up a new fire. With hardwood charcoal, adding a little as you go leads to excessive popping and sparking.

Soft charcoal tends not to pop and spark as much and is better suited for continual feeding.
 
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