Technical Question Early Scythemaking

[duckweed]

I feel somebody must know this answer. I have found out how early wrought iron and steel were made using charcoal and white coal. What I want to know is when they forge welded the iron and steel together to make the scythe blade might they have used coal then? I've got loads of experts saying people didn't like to use coal in their house as it was too smokey but know they did use it for glass blowing, brewing, salt distilling, so might they use it in the forge and blacksmiths? I am talking about the time before they discovered how to make coke.

[DaveH]

I feel somebody must know this answer. I have found out how early wrought iron and steel were made using charcoal and white coal. What I want to know is when they forge welded the iron and steel together to make the scythe blade might they have used coal then? I've got loads of experts saying people didn't like to use coal in their house as it was too smokey but know they did use it for glass blowing, brewing, salt distilling, so might they use it in the forge and blacksmiths? I am talking about the time before they discovered how to make coke.

Charcoal is fairly pure carbon. when wrought iron is heated with it the iron picks up carbon which can be "hammered in" to alloy it into steel, - an early form of steel making.

Coal is very impure carbon. Yes the iron would pick up some of the carbon to make steel just the same but it would also pick up some of the impurities (coal tar and the like)

One of the chief impurities in coal is sulphur. Burning coal is held responsible for acid rain as burning sulphur forms sulphur dioxide, the main gas responsible for acid rain.

However, if sulphur gets into the iron then rather than forming a useful alloy like carbon it causes embrittlement of the metal causing it to snap and fracture more easily.

For this reason I think coal would be avoided on a blacksmiths forge.

[duckweed]

Charcoal is fairly pure carbon. when wrought iron is heated with it the iron picks up carbon which can be "hammered in" to alloy it into steel, - an early form of steel making.

Coal is very impure carbon. Yes the iron would pick up some of the carbon to make steel just the same but it would also pick up some of the impurities (coal tar and the like)

One of the chief impurities in coal is sulphur. Burning coal is held responsible for acid rain as burning sulphur forms sulphur dioxide, the main gas responsible for acid rain.

However, if sulphur gets into the iron then rather than forming a useful alloy like carbon it causes embrittlement of the metal causing it to snap and fracture more easily.

For this reason I think coal would be avoided on a blacksmiths forge.

Thank you I knew when you were making wrought iron or steal it was a problem. I didn't know if it still was a problem when forging the steel and the iron together to make the scythe blade. So I am assuming that this family who were both scythemakers and had mines that had iron and coal, tdid not use the coal but supplied to non metal workers and exported to London.

[DaveH]

Thank you I knew when you were making wrought iron or steal it was a problem. I didn't know if it still was a problem when forging the steel and the iron together to make the scythe blade. So I am assuming that this family who were both scythemakers and had mines that had iron and coal, tdid not use the coal but supplied to non metal workers and exported to London.

I think it was only when coking produced a more pure form of carbon (coke) that coal could be used successfully.

It could of course be heated strongly on the forge first to remove the impurities and "coke" it but this would be messy on an open forge in an enclosed smithy's workshop, -the smoke, soot, fumes and smell of it.

Coking actually made better use of the coal not just because it removed impurities making it cleaner to use (smokeless fuel) but all those otherwise waste impurities were all collected and put to good use, the coal gas, coal tar and the ammoniacle liquer.