Morning everybody, new guy here by name of Frosty. I subbed on to see what's new with adhesives. The "Testing for the Ultimate Adhesive" thread was linked on Iforgeiron forum and. . . Here I am. Please forgive me if a bunch of smileys post I'm still figuring the site out.
Anyway charcoal has been used since before humans started banging on metal. It has it's own characteristics of course. One that folks unfamiliar get wrong is the air blast. Charcoal doesn't work well in a bottom blast forge, it requires as noted above a very deep fire but it WILL spread to the entire pile.
Charcoal works best in a side blast forge and an old BBQ works a treat. The main design of a side blast is a longish V shaped trench and the tuyere pipe entering perpendicular to the trench. A fire back and another through which the tuyere is directed allows for greater depth.
The following link is the beginning of the subject on Iforge and Charles has made several modifications, cutting a trench rather than a "pot" is one of the latest and works much better.
https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/448...e-blast-forge/
JABOD stands for "Just A Box Of Dirt", either search term will hit on more posts than a boy can use.
The basics though are a couple inches of packed soil under the fire to dissipate and prevent burning/warping the "box."
A side blast forge works with any solid fuel, or should I say I've never heard of one that didn't work well in one. Coal and coke work well in a bottom blast of course.
Frosty