Question about going from coal to propane in my forge, feeling a bit lost

For years I ran my little rivet forge on coal out in the yard here in Abilene, and I could read the fire by color and sound without thinking twice about it. Last fall I switched to a two burner propane setup because the coal supplier 40 miles out closed down, and now I'm fighting hot spots and scale that I never dealt with before. Any of you who made that jump, did you change how you soak your steel or is it just a matter of learning a new fire?

1 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

1 Comment

johnson.jason11d ago

You said you could read the fire by color and sound, and that's the part that trips people up. Coal gives you that slow even heat and you can watch the whole bed, but propane is two torches blasting one spot and the steel right under them gets way hotter than the rest. What are you using to judge the temp now, just your eyes on the steel or do you have something checking it? Because with coal you had time to react, and with gas that hot spot moves in seconds. Are you rotating the steel or moving it around the burner zone, or still laying it in like you did with coal?

8