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I swore by coal for 9 years, then a guy in his 70s handed me a piece of pine at a hammer-in in Ohio
I have been burning bituminous coal since I started forging in my early 20s, mostly because that is what the old guys in my area used and I never questioned it. Last month I went to a hammer-in near Athens, Ohio, and an older smith had me try forging a simple S-hook on his pine fire instead of my coal forge. The pine burned down to coals way faster, maybe 15 minutes from lighting to working heat, and I could actually see the color of my steel the whole time instead of squinting through yellow smoke. My hook took me 2 heat cycles less than usual because I was not fighting the fire to keep the sweet spot steady. Now I am second guessing whether I want to keep buying coal at $18 a bag when a $6 bundle of pine from the farm store does the job. Has anyone else made the switch from coal to wood, and did you stick with it or go back?
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wyattbennett7d ago
Wait, $18 a bag for coal and you're just now questioning it? I've been paying that for years and never once thought to try pine, that's wild. The part that gets me is 15 minutes to working heat, my coal fire takes way longer than that to get going.
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