[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Coal (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 12/22/2010 5:24:29 AM EDT
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After reading Feral's latest post, and seeing the herculean effort involved in bucking, splitting, and stacking 9 cords of firewood, I started to think maybe coal might be a good addition to stored BTU's on your property. Does anthracite coal lose any substantial amount of BTU's when piled up over time? I have been told that coal is the cheapest BTU out there...is this true? What are the pro's and con's of anthracite coal over other BTU's such as wood and propane? Thanks mi amigos. |
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I grew up burning coal.
Way more heat in less space. Way less work even just moving it into the house. A good size lump of coal burns a long time. We stored it from down in the basement to just in a big uncovered pile outside. Have the big truck come, dump, and other than feed the stove, you're done. I love the smell of burning coal. Tj |
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We used to heat our other house with coal only. We had a stove up stairs and down stairs. We would order two tons of coal at a time. There was a local guy that would deliver for $70 a ton. Two tons would last us more than a year. We would store it in the garage in 55 gallon drums. As long as it was in the garage it did not deteriorate.
I love heating with coal. Nice even heat and we would only store the fire once or twice a day. |
| I saw somewhere maybe a Nat Geo a picture of a large pile of coal in the Aleutians. Apparently the US military had left it there after the war and the villagers there have been using it for the last 50 yrs to heat their homes. It is just sitting exposed to the elements. I have considered purchasing some coal and storing it in drums in the basement. I heat with wood but my stove can use coal. I figure coal will make less smoke and less smell than burning wood. Help keep a bit lower profile if TSHTF. My neighbor has a coal stove and I can only tell it is running by looking at his chimney to see the heat coming off it. |
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Coal's a great fuel. I really wish our backup heat was coal but I'm not quite willing to yank out our oil furnace to put a coal burner in since we almost never use the backup heat anyway.
The only downside to coal is that it gets pricier the farther away you go from the source. If you live near or in the "coal country" (as it's called around here), it's pretty cheap. Where I live, if I wanted coal, I'd borrow a dump trailer, drive up to the coal country, and have 'em fill it up. 
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Coal will last for a couple million years! We also have a coal stove, we use it when I can't find free firewood. We have heat pumps with oil backup, and use solid fuel to stretch our oil use. Coal is indeed the cheapest per BTU, esp since I can drive to Meadowbrook Coal in Lykens and pick it up right off the mine.
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I was just looking at the Harman TLC 2000, which can burn either wood or coal. That seems like one sweet stove. Just called a coal co that sells that TLC2000 stove. Bitumious coal is $130/ton and the stove is a little less than $2k. I think one of those barrel on top of a barrel stoves might be cheaper. |
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Quoted: I grew up burning coal. Way more heat in less space. Way less work even just moving it into the house. A good size lump of coal burns a long time. We stored it from down in the basement to just in a big uncovered pile outside. Have the big truck come, dump, and other than feed the stove, you're done. I love the smell of burning coal. Tj Same. We'd get a delivery every fall. Stored it in a bin in the garage my dad built. Kept the whole house warm from a stove in the basement. I remember cooking on it a few times the power was out for an extended period. |
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I grew up burning coal. Way more heat in less space. Way less work even just moving it into the house. A good size lump of coal burns a long time. We stored it from down in the basement to just in a big uncovered pile outside. Have the big truck come, dump, and other than feed the stove, you're done. I love the smell of burning coal. Tj Same. We'd get a delivery every fall. Stored it in a bin in the garage my dad built. Kept the whole house warm from a stove in the basement. I remember cooking on it a few times the power was out for an extended period. First, "Hey old friend, how you been?" "Shoot Bambi this year?" I guess over my life, we did coal every which way it can be done. The old houses, 19th century, had one on a farm in Ohio, with the fireplaces in every room, we burned them a big lump at a time in the fire place. Potbelly stoves in the smaller houses, fire them up late at night to last the whole night using doors regulate heat. Boy I remember how hot that stove room got. We finally, the last farm, had a stoker. Oh man was that nice. Had a coal shute, The truck would just back up to the basement and dump it down. Precut treated coal, we filled that hopper twice a day and it heated the whole house. Even one big farm house, my uncles, had a boiler system in the basement which was coal fed. That was a monster house with Gables and hidden passenges behind the walls. Real Gothic and quite the hoot for a kid. Mostly though I remember the fireplaces and the pot belly stoves. We used just wood in the cook stoves. Having grown up in Appalachia, I have a lot of fond memories of coal. Some not so fun, coal truck accidents, family driving coal trucks (never ended well for my family), coal mines, and my dad spent his life cooking coal on a coke oven to make steel. What I will tell you is you burn a hell of a lot of coal, it smells totally different than say a stove or fireplace. When you burn a lot, you can't help but bake some of the coal so the coal gas escapes burning. You get way more of the sulpher smell. Smaller quantities, it takes its time burning and burns the coal gas. Tj |
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After reading Feral's latest post, and seeing the herculean effort involved in bucking, splitting, and stacking 9 cords of firewood, I started to think maybe coal might be a good addition to stored BTU's on your property. Does anthracite coal lose any substantial amount of BTU's when piled up over time? I have been told that coal is the cheapest BTU out there...is this true? What are the pro's and con's of anthracite coal over other BTU's such as wood and propane? Thanks mi amigos. no, yes to learn everything to learn about anthracite coal go to nepacrossroads.com |
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.................... What I will tell you is you burn a hell of a lot of coal, it smells totally different than say a stove or fireplace. When you burn a lot, you can't help but bake some of the coal so the coal gas escapes burning. You get way more of the sulpher smell. Smaller quantities, it takes its time burning and burns the coal gas. Tj I never smell coal burning but that I think of my grandparents. They lived in Birmingham (Fairfield) back when steel was king. Miles before we got to their house we could smell the coke from the mills. That and the aroma from my grandmother's huge gas stove in the kitchen- I can conjure them up even now. Those interested in coal should research spontaneous combustion. |
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I have a Hitzer (sp?) wood/coal furnace in the house.
Being in southern MD, have never burned coal, but I see piles outside of some of the Amish around here, so SOMEBODY is trucking it in! A few Amish also sell it: wil have to check and see how much a ton next time I get feed. |
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After reading Feral's latest post, and seeing the herculean effort involved in bucking, splitting, and stacking 9 cords of firewood, I started to think maybe coal might be a good addition to stored BTU's on your property. Does anthracite coal lose any substantial amount of BTU's when piled up over time? I have been told that coal is the cheapest BTU out there...is this true? What are the pro's and con's of anthracite coal over other BTU's such as wood and propane? Thanks mi amigos. no, yes to learn everything to learn about anthracite coal go to nepacrossroads.com depends on how far ur from the source, at 330 per ton wood heat is cheapest around here but we have a wood coal furnace and when it gets cold enough in january we switch over to coal and love the low maintance and high heat output house will be in the upper 70's as long as were on coal. best long term storage heat you can get imo |
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http://www.uwsp.edu/cnr/wcee/keep/Mod1/Whatis/energyresourcetables.htm
This ^^ link gives info on BTUs/qty of various fuels. A std cord of 'average' specified wood has about 20 MILLION BTU. A face cord about 7 million BTU. A ton of wood has about 12 million BTU Now to put this into perspective with oil and coal, A ton of coal has about 20 million BTU. [These numbers obviously vary on the type of wood/coal and its quality, etc.] A pound of LPG has about 22,000BTU so a ton would have 44 million. Or a gallon of LPG has about 90,000 BTU, so a 500 gallon tank filled to 80% would have 45 MILLION BTUs. This is where it gets interesting... A gallon of petroleum like kerosene or diesel has about 140,000 BTU per gallon. Since a gallon of kero weighs just a little over 7 lbs per gallon, 500 gallons of kero [for example] would contain a whopping 70 MILLION BTUs! That's about 9 55 gallon barrels [that aren't really that large] A whole shitpot of energy in a real small package. [This is why trying to run cars and trucks that do any real work with envirowacko techniques [except hauling hippies around] hasn't been an easy technical problem to solve] Look at pricing. Kero runs about $3.50 a gallon so 500 gallons costs $1750 for 70 million BTUs. Coal runs about $150 a ton /w delivery or maybe more, for about 20 million BTU. Now you can see why coal is so cheap to heat with. And IIRC, the EPA control freaks haven't regulated coal burning stoves like they have stuck their noses into wood burning ones, but some jurisdictions may. |
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Wow, great responses. I'm surprised with all the superb input on this forum coal has not been discussed more as a SHTF backup fuel source. Why not stockpile...a pile or two? Since there is no degradation from exposure to the elements and therefore doesn't require any special storage, why wouldn't we keep a ton or two somewhere on the property as a SHTF backup fuel source? For heat, it seems a much better, more stable, and cheaper alternative to just about everything else. If you live in the northern climes it seems like a no brainer. |
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Coal is great just make sure you can find a place that's local who will sell it to you. I live near a lot of coal mines and have tried to buy from some of them with no luck. I had to have coal shipped to me from another state. The Union Pacific loads three or four trains a week from Gateway Mines in Sparta. I know they have a separate hopper for loading trucks. Try calling them. |
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Wow, great responses. I'm surprised with all the superb input on this forum coal has not been discussed more as a SHTF backup fuel source. Why not stockpile...a pile or two? Since there is no degradation from exposure to the elements and therefore doesn't require any special storage, why wouldn't we keep a ton or two somewhere on the property as a SHTF backup fuel source? For heat, it seems a much better, more stable, and cheaper alternative to just about everything else. If you live in the northern climes it seems like a no brainer. Exactly! :) I've wondered this myself. I'm in WV, and the coal trains run in front of my house (150yds.), and I'm only a mile from a coal tipple. My area is bituminus, but I could probably get anthracite delivered too. I would use anthracite (if I could get it without too much trouble), and then if things were ever full on "TEOTWAWKI" I'd be able to scavenge/barter considerable amounts of bituminous. The ground is practically made of it in my area.LOL I wanted to ask about coal stoves too. I have NG heat now (two furnaces), with a kero tower and a propane big buddy heater for backups. If a fella had to heat 2600 sq. ft., what would be the Arfcom coal stove to get? Can a nice one be had without paying too, too much? Would we be able to get the 30% tax credit on one of these? I think they are going to extend the credit past 2010......? Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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We've got an oil furnace (forced air) for the shoulder seasons, and an automatic coal stoker (Keystoker 90) for the rest of the winter.
Coal can be a bitch to light - once you find your technique it goes better, but still takes time. Since it's hard to light, you generally want to keep the stove fired. We're heating an 1700 square foot 1870s farmhouse (with some new insulation etc) on a hair under 3 tons a year - anthracite rice coal. It all fits in a 4x4x8 plywood bin. I empty ashes once a day, and fill the hopper once a day. (Right now, near peak heating, about 50lb/day.) Anthracite (hard coal) is far better for burning than bituminous (soft coal). And it will store without degrading literally forever. Doesn't need to be kept dry, shaded, anything. Just pile it up and dig out what you need. It can be dusty and dirty; we get our coal delivered "oiled" - they rinse with water and then oil to keep the dust down. Ashes get everywhere no matter what; just use a shop-vac to get what spills (after it cools). The stove is a little noisy - it's got three separate motors running 24/7 (room air blower, feed motor, exhaust blower). Sucks 200W and HAS to have electricity to run - worth keeping in mind if you're in an outage-prone area. If/when the stove dies, I'm probably going to replace it with pellets - self-igniting, less ash, less dust, and less aggravating to the boss's allergies. All that said ... we're heating all winter on $800 worth of coal. Cordwood is about $200/cord here, oil is north of $3/gal, and there isn't any NG service. It's not a bad way to do it. ETA: Quoted:
it does spontaniously combust. it is easy to put out, but it happens often. I too work at an evil coal fired plant. I've never seen this happen - maybe a function of the pulverizing that they do in coal plants? Anyways, not something I'd be concerned about AT ALL as a homeowner. |
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I've been burning anthracite coal for 3 years. There is very little, if any odor and there is no smoke. Anthracite coal can be stored much longer than bituminous.
I've never used soft bituminous coal and can not in my stoker. I understand that soft coal does not store well, smokes when being lit and is odorous. Anthracite does not spoil if it gets wet in storage like wood pellets. Coal makes a lot more ash than wood. Anthracite I use is about 10% ash. I understand wood is about 1 to 2% ash. So a wood stove that burns coal also would need a much larger ash pan. Otherwise it might need emptying several times a day. For survival purposes I would buy a hand fired Keystoker, Hitzer, Reading, Alaska or Harmon coal stove. But only if I had a source for the coal. |
| When starting a bituminous coal fire light your kindling on top of a layer of coal, those nasty smelly fumes will be burned of immediately. This is the opposite of anthracite. Bituminous coal is easy to light but leaves more ash and clinkers than anthracite. Bituminous coal will keep just fine, but is best kept out of the weather to keep it dry, if it gets wet and freezes then you will be out there with a hammer breaking it up to bring it inside. |
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We have burned coal at the camp and at mom and dad's house for as long as I can remember. We have it stock piled at the cabin out of the weather in a dry but not enclosed area. Coal is definately the way I would go on a TEOTWAWKI situation, wood being a second source. It gets the camp a little dirty but cleaning around every now and then takes care of it. Burn's longer and hotter than the wood.
This year I bought coal in a 60 lb bags for $5.00/bag, only because I didn't have time to go to the coal yard to load up the truck, at the coal yard it was $60.00/ton, but you had to get it on Mondays between 8-12 in the morning or so I was told. |
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Large coal piles can spontaneously combust. Cite, please? Our local power gen plant keeps something like a quarter-million tons (minimum, usually more) in a giant pile. No fires. ... Ok, I googled. Found this piece from Alaska. If you're buying decent coal and keeping it in an outdoor pile - in any volume a home user is likely to store, even multiple years worth - I sincerely doubt this is anything resembling a real risk. |
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Large coal piles can spontaneously combust. Cite, please? Our local power gen plant keeps something like a quarter-million tons (minimum, usually more) in a giant pile. No fires. ... Ok, I googled. Found this piece from Alaska. If you're buying decent coal and keeping it in an outdoor pile - in any volume a home user is likely to store, even multiple years worth - I sincerely doubt this is anything resembling a real risk. Here is one from MSHA. http://www.msha.gov/fatals/2006/aracoma/appendix%20y%20-%20evaluation%20of%20spontaneous%20ignition%20potential%20of%20coal%20sample.pdf |
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Large coal piles can spontaneously combust. Cite, please? Our local power gen plant keeps something like a quarter-million tons (minimum, usually more) in a giant pile. No fires. ... Ok, I googled. Found this piece from Alaska. If you're buying decent coal and keeping it in an outdoor pile - in any volume a home user is likely to store, even multiple years worth - I sincerely doubt this is anything resembling a real risk. Here is one from MSHA. http://www.msha.gov/fatals/2006/aracoma/appendix%20y%20-%20evaluation%20of%20spontaneous%20ignition%20potential%20of%20coal%20sample.pdf I think it's rare for this to happen. |
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My son's GF lives in coal country, they get coal for less than they can get cut split seasoned firewood.
My grandfather lived up in PA in retirement. As he aged he developed a system where he would get a delivery, and make up brown paper bags of coal, and have them lined up in his attached garage, tops folded and stapled. His woodstove was rated for coal, so he'd burn firewood, then toward evening, grab a bag or two and switch over to coal, adjust his airflow, and it would extend the burn pretty much all night. It is said that the USA is the "Saudi Arabia of coal". We have a lot of the stuff. |
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Large coal piles can spontaneously combust. Cite, please? Our local power gen plant keeps something like a quarter-million tons (minimum, usually more) in a giant pile. No fires. ... Ok, I googled. Found this piece from Alaska. If you're buying decent coal and keeping it in an outdoor pile - in any volume a home user is likely to store, even multiple years worth - I sincerely doubt this is anything resembling a real risk. Here is one from MSHA. http://www.msha.gov/fatals/2006/aracoma/appendix%20y%20-%20evaluation%20of%20spontaneous%20ignition%20potential%20of%20coal%20sample.pdf I think it's rare for this to happen. Yep, it's silly to bring this up for the amt of coal a homeowner would be likely to store. |
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Never dealt with coal, so I have a couple simple questions:
-can I burn coal in my house fire place? (originally built as a wood burning fire place - currently has a gas burning log in it, but I can remove it in a few minutes if needed) -can I brun coal in a fire pit in the back yard? |
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Never dealt with coal, so I have a couple simple questions: -can I burn coal in my house fire place? (originally built as a wood burning fire place - currently has a gas burning log in it, but I can remove it in a few minutes if needed) -can I brun coal in a fire pit in the back yard? you need a basket to burn it properly in a fireplace plus a fret( this regulates airflow to below the basket), log baskets have too much space between the slots in the basket and the coals fall through it will burn fine outside in a pit |
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Quoted: coal power plants have coal fires all the time from spontainious combustion. they usually just solder and someone snuffs it out with the bulldozer that is on the pile. As a kid I spent a ton of time on the Ohio River. There is a steady flow of towboats bushing barges of coal down the river, all day and all night long. Most of these were 3 barges wide by 5-6 long, piled 20' high (5' -7' above the top of the barge). There had to be 10's of thousands of tons at a time if not more. I don't ever recall seeing one on fire, or even hearing of one on fire. I would think it would present a huge safety issue if it were more than a remote possibility. I'm not suggesting that it's impossible, but it must be pretty rare... My $.02, -Slice |
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coal power plants have coal fires all the time from spontainious combustion. they usually just solder and someone snuffs it out with the bulldozer that is on the pile. burning coal has a VERY distinct smell. not bad at first, but kind of stinky. It can and does happen in large stockpiles like an electrical generation plant where they stockpile several trainloads. They're equipped with the equipment to put it out though so it seldom is anything that makes the news... off the topic but some big bass live in the coldwater inlet to the OG&E plant at Redrock, Oklahoma...in a past job as a railroad brakeman we took our fishing poles and had some fun while the train was being dumped until some knothead filleted his catch and plugged the inlet screens shutting down the plant when he tossed the waste back into the water... Out of curiosity, has anyone tried burning Petroleum Coke or PetCoke? It's the last product from a refinery and burns hot too...I've seen that stuff turn the side of a railcar cherry red when on fire. It usually goes to inndustrial use... |
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coal power plants have coal fires all the time from spontainious combustion. they usually just solder and someone snuffs it out with the bulldozer that is on the pile. burning coal has a VERY distinct smell. not bad at first, but kind of stinky. It can and does happen in large stockpiles like an electrical generation plant where they stockpile several trainloads. They're equipped with the equipment to put it out though so it seldom is anything that makes the news... off the topic but some big bass live in the coldwater inlet to the OG&E plant at Redrock, Oklahoma...in a past job as a railroad brakeman we took our fishing poles and had some fun while the train was being dumped until some knothead filleted his catch and plugged the inlet screens shutting down the plant when he tossed the waste back into the water... Out of curiosity, has anyone tried burning Petroleum Coke or PetCoke? It's the last product from a refinery and burns hot too...I've seen that stuff turn the side of a railcar cherry red when on fire. It usually goes to inndustrial use... Yup, I used to buy 2 bags of coal and one of petcoke a week, we heated the house with radiators of a back boiler. i used to melt the cast iron basket in my fireplace, but it sure kept you warm! |
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it does spontaniously combust. it is easy to put out, but it happens often. I too work at an evil coal fired plant. anthracite coal only burns under very strict conditions. a loose pile in the yard or basement will not combust or burn even after you light it with a torch. there are conditions where it will burn, but they are rare. though there is a city in pa that has been burning underground for a hundred years or so. |
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Never dealt with coal, so I have a couple simple questions: -can I burn coal in my house fire place? (originally built as a wood burning fire place - currently has a gas burning log in it, but I can remove it in a few minutes if needed) -can I brun coal in a fire pit in the back yard? only bitmus coal, not anthracite. |
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it does spontaniously combust. it is easy to put out, but it happens often. I too work at an evil coal fired plant. anthracite coal only burns under very strict conditions. a loose pile in the yard or basement will not combust or burn even after you light it with a torch. there are conditions where it will burn, but they are rare. though there is a city in pa that has been burning underground for a hundred years or so. Google up "Centralia mine fire" and read. Been burning since 1964, even collapsed a state highway. It still burns today, the Smoking Hillside is well known. Ops |
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To get a single chunk of coal to burn properly in a fireplace, you need a grate and a good hot coal (hot embers) base under the grate. We use to use wood to start a coal fire from scratch, build up our hot coals, then put the lump of coal on the grate above the coals. Once the coal starts burning properly, that then feeds the hot coal base under the grate.
Basically you need enough heat to get the coal gas coming out of the coal enough to sustain a flame to get coal to burn. That's why coal piles are typically not considered fire hazards any more than a wood pile is, actually less of one. It also explains why mine fires can be a bugger if not impossible to put out. Of interesting note, the most flammable storage thing I've been around is mulch. That stuff degrades creating its own heat. Big enough pile, like in a mulch factory, self igniting fires are real problem. Most mulch factories have elaborate fire systems. Tj |
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TJ, Did you use the big chunks when you burnt them like this? I've seen a lot of folks talking about "gravel" sized coal. When I was a kid, the coal yard behind the mill used to have chunks of coal about the size of a softball or a little bigger. I thought if I had a decent grate in the woodstove I might be able to chuck a couple of these in. Thanks, -Slice |
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TJ, Did you use the big chunks when you burnt them like this? I've seen a lot of folks talking about "gravel" sized coal. When I was a kid, the coal yard behind the mill used to have chunks of coal about the size of a softball or a little bigger. I thought if I had a decent grate in the woodstove I might be able to chuck a couple of these in. Thanks, -Slice slice when dealing with anthracite. the coal that is typically used in the stoker stoves is called "rice coal". these are the size of a grain of rice. the next 3 sizes from smaller to larger are used in hand fired stoves. the first is "pea coal". this is typically the size of peas, then "chestnut coal". this is typically the size of chestnuts. next up is "stove coal" this is the size of a baseball. i have no info on larger sizes as i have little to no experience with them. but... when i was a kid my parents would buy a lumps of bitmus coal the size of a 2 gallon container and throw one in the fireplace at a time on top of the wood coal embers to burn. bitmus burns really hot compared the wood but it does not burn as hot as the anthracite coal. i would imagine the bitmus coal is size graded the same as anthracite. i do not think you could get an efficient burn of anthracite in a fireplace grate. it likes to be stacked deep to burn well. joe |
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Quoted: Quoted: TJ, Did you use the big chunks when you burnt them like this? I've seen a lot of folks talking about "gravel" sized coal. When I was a kid, the coal yard behind the mill used to have chunks of coal about the size of a softball or a little bigger. I thought if I had a decent grate in the woodstove I might be able to chuck a couple of these in. Thanks, -Slice slice when dealing with anthracite. the coal that is typically used in the stoker stoves is called "rice coal". these are the size of a grain of rice. the next 3 sizes from smaller to larger are used in hand fired stoves. the first is "pea coal". this is typically the size of peas, then "chestnut coal". this is typically the size of chestnuts. next up is "stove coal" this is the size of a baseball. i have no info on larger sizes as i have little to no experience with them. but... when i was a kid my parents would buy a lumps of bitmus coal the size of a 2 gallon container and throw one in the fireplace at a time on top of the wood coal embers to burn. bitmus burns really hot compared the wood but it does not burn as hot as the anthracite coal. i would imagine the bitmus coal is size graded the same as anthracite. i do not think you could get an efficient burn of anthracite in a fireplace grate. it likes to be stacked deep to burn well. joe Thanks, Joe. I'm guessing it was bituminous coal. IIRC, they used to call it "soft coal", and the source was regional (IN, KY, WV). Isn't that the high-sulfer eastern variety, vs. anthracite being the low-sulfer western type? What I would like to do is basically what your parents did, heap a chunk or two on top of the wood coals at night, though nothing as big as 2 gal! -Slice |
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TJ, Did you use the big chunks when you burnt them like this? I've seen a lot of folks talking about "gravel" sized coal. When I was a kid, the coal yard behind the mill used to have chunks of coal about the size of a softball or a little bigger. I thought if I had a decent grate in the woodstove I might be able to chuck a couple of these in. Thanks, -Slice slice when dealing with anthracite. the coal that is typically used in the stoker stoves is called "rice coal". these are the size of a grain of rice. the next 3 sizes from smaller to larger are used in hand fired stoves. the first is "pea coal". this is typically the size of peas, then "chestnut coal". this is typically the size of chestnuts. next up is "stove coal" this is the size of a baseball. i have no info on larger sizes as i have little to no experience with them. but... when i was a kid my parents would buy a lumps of bitmus coal the size of a 2 gallon container and throw one in the fireplace at a time on top of the wood coal embers to burn. bitmus burns really hot compared the wood but it does not burn as hot as the anthracite coal. i would imagine the bitmus coal is size graded the same as anthracite. i do not think you could get an efficient burn of anthracite in a fireplace grate. it likes to be stacked deep to burn well. joe Thanks, Joe. I'm guessing it was bituminous coal. IIRC, they used to call it "soft coal", and the source was regional (IN, KY, WV). Isn't that the high-sulfer eastern variety, vs. anthracite being the low-sulfer western type? What I would like to do is basically what your parents did, heap a chunk or two on top of the wood coals at night, though nothing as big as 2 gal! -Slice It is not all high sulfer, you can get low sulfer depending on where you are located. |