Read a book on old farm tools that said a forge could burn 30 pounds of coal an hour

I found this in a book from the library called 'Forging the Farm'. It was talking about how blacksmiths in the 1800s worked on big farms. The book said a normal forge, just for regular work, could go through 30 pounds of coal in a single hour. That really surprised me. I guess I never thought about how much fuel they needed back then. It makes you appreciate how efficient modern forges are. Has anyone else come across stats like that in old books?

3 comments

3 Comments

annawebb9d ago

What about the guy working the bellows? That's a huge factor nobody's talking about. A tired apprentice pumping slow would burn way less coal than a strong smith going full blast to get a big piece hot. The human element makes any single number kind of guesswork. You'd have good days and bad days just based on how hard you were working to keep the fire hot enough.

riley_taylor9d ago

That number seems a bit off for a regular farm forge. Most of the old manuals I've seen put it closer to 10-15 pounds an hour for steady work. A big industrial forge could hit 30, but a farm shop was usually smaller scale. Might depend on the type of coal and the firepot size.

the_holly9d agoMost Upvoted

Totally makes sense about the farm forge numbers. My granddad had a small setup and he'd go through a sack of coal over a whole weekend of fixing tools. It wasn't constant work, more like heat, hammer, wait, repeat. The fire would just bank down between jobs. A big factory running all day would burn through fuel like nothing, but a one-man shop was way slower.