That blacksmith who told me to ditch my propane forge for a coal one was right

I argued with a guy named Tom at a hammer-in in Ohio last summer. He said my $200 propane forge was making my steel too brittle because it wasn't getting hot enough. Tbh I thought he was just old school and stuck in his ways. After ruining three blades in a row I finally switched to a coal forge and my edge retention doubled. Has anyone else had a similar switch that actually worked out?

2 comments

2 Comments

harper_wells17d ago

Tom at that Ohio hammer-in has been around long enough to know his stuff, and I bet he saw your setup and figured you'd learn the hard way like a lot of us. I had a similar experience about ten years back when I switched from a worn-out gas forge to a side-blast charcoal setup for kitchen knives. The real shocker for me wasn't just the heat though - it was how much cleaner the steel came out. My propane forge always left this weird scale that chipped off unevenly, while coal gives me a nice even layer I can work with. That extra control over the atmosphere in the fire made a bigger difference than the temperature alone.

logan_white5917d ago

Harper, I gotta disagree with you on the coal vs propane thing. I've been running a gas forge for about six years now and the scale issue you're describing sounds more like a burner tuning problem than a fuel problem. A good atmospheric burner with the right air mix gives me a clean, even scale every time, no chipping or uneven spots.