Tried a new coal mix and my forge went from orange to almost white hot

I was messing around with my old forge last week, blending some bituminous coal from Kentucky with a bit of anthracite I had left over. I figured it would just burn a little cleaner. Instead, after about 20 minutes, the fire hit a heat I've rarely seen outside of a professional shop. It was so bright I had to grab my darkest shade 5 lenses. The piece I was working, a simple leaf keychain, practically melted under the hammer. Learned that small changes in fuel can have a huge, wild effect. Anyone else have a forge recipe that went way different than you planned?

3 comments

3 Comments

patking3mo ago

That's how it goes with most things, the tiny tweaks that change everything.

adams.harper3mo ago

Seriously, what was the ratio?

spencer_perry7726d ago

Hard disagree honestly. Most of the time those tiny tweaks people talk about are just random luck dressed up as strategy. You can tinker with something for months and get nowhere, then someone else stumbles onto the same thing by accident and it sticks. Its way more about timing and being in the right spot than some magic little change. People love to look back after something works and call it a "small adjustment" but they ignore the fifty other small adjustments that failed first.