leo603•22d ago

Remember making your own forge fuel?

Back in the 90s I spent every Saturday crushing charcoal and mixing it with clay for my forge. Now I just grab a bag of coal from the hardware store for $12 and call it a day. Anyone else miss that weird satisfaction of building your own stuff from scratch?

2 comments

2 Comments

grayw3222d ago

You had to crush your own charcoal and mix it with clay. Man, that brings back memories." One time a buddy of mine named Dave decided he was gonna get real authentic with his forge setup. Spent a whole weekend building this charcoal kiln out of an old oil drum, thinking he was some kind of medieval blacksmith. He filled it with scrap wood from a construction site, lit it up, and it worked perfectly for like three hours. Then the whole thing just collapsed in on itself, sending a big cloud of ash and smoke all over his backyard. His neighbor called the fire department thinking the house was burning down. Dave still talks about that day, says it was the best forge fuel he ever made even though he almost got a citation for it. These days he just buys a bag of coal too, but he tells that story every time someone mentions building their own stuff.

morgan.joseph22d ago

Man your Dave story kinda changed how I see that whole process @grayw32. I used to think making your own charcoal was just a waste of time but hearing how proud he still is about it makes me get why people do it.