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Found out from an old forge book that a coal fire can hit 2,800 degrees, and I've been babying mine at 2,000 this whole time
I picked up a used copy of a forging book from a guy in Toledo last month and there's a chart in the back with fire temps, and the coal number stopped me cold. It says a good clean coal fire runs around 2,800 degrees at the heart, and here I am holding back my blower because I was scared of burning my stock. I tried pushing my fire hotter on a set of tongs I was drawing out and the steel moved like butter, way easier than the slow working I've done for two years. My scale flaked off faster too, but the hammer blows counted for more per heat instead of me standing there reheating every 90 seconds. The book is from 1978 if that matters, so I don't know if the number holds up, but the difference at the anvil sure felt real. Now I'm second guessing my whole blower habit and wondering if I've been adding an hour to every job. What temp do you all run your coal fires at, and did it take you a while to trust going hotter?
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