Coal vs charcoal for forge welding, coal wins every time

I spent a year fighting with charcoal trying to get a decent forge weld on a pattern welded billet. Could never get the heat consistent enough, kept getting cold shuts and delaminations. Swapped to bituminous coal about 3 months ago and my first weld took in one heat. The flux actually sticks to the metal better and you don't get those weird hot spots. Has anyone else had way better luck with one fuel over the other for specific tasks?

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blake_cooper3mo ago

Stack your fire right and charcoal works fine but you gotta treat it more like a gas forge than a coal fire. Build a deep bed, keep it reducing, and don't let the air blast blow through or you'll burn up your steel before it gets to welding temp. Once I figured out to lay a thin layer of coke on top of the charcoal it actually held heat way better than straight coal for finer damascus layers.

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elizabetha923mo ago

And then if you throw a little borax on right before the weld it really locks that heat in even better.

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