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Was cleaning out my grandpa's old shop and found a receipt that made me rethink everything about coal.
I was sorting through a rusty toolbox in the back of his shed in Bellingham, and under some old files was a receipt from 1972 for a ton of Pocahontas coal. The price was marked at $14. I had to look it up... that same coal today, if you can even find it, runs over $400 a ton. I always figured coal was just coal, and the cheap stuff from the hardware store was fine for my little forge. But seeing that receipt made me dig into why that old coal was so special. Turns out, Pocahontas is a low-volatile coal, which burns way cleaner and hotter with less clinker. I tried a bag of the modern equivalent last week, and the difference in heat control for my knife work is night and day. I was fighting my fire for years for no good reason. Has anyone else switched coal types and been shocked by how much easier it makes things?
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elliot_miller227d ago
Check out old railroad records if you can, they sometimes list what coal they used for steam locomotives. That's how I found out about a specific mine in Kentucky that had the good stuff. @blair_allen is right about fighting a bad fire, it's like trying to cook on a stove that keeps turning off. Using the right coal is like having a steady flame you can actually control.
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