Instead of starting a new thread I thought I could restart this one. I have a thread going on the deer hunting page about my upcoming Adirondack Wall Tent Camp. My intention was to stockpile some firewood for the November hunt when my wife and I were camped there a couple weeks ago. That didn’t work out for a few reasons. Anyway, I got to thinking about burning coal. The stove I got has a coal grate. So I found a supply of Anthricite stove coal and gave it a try yesterday. I got a good hardwood kindling fire going and piled the coal on. Not much luck on the coal burning. I kept adding hardwood, but the coal didn’t want to burn. I’m thinking about maybe trying charcoal or pressed wood logs, anything to get the coal lit and keep it burning. I’m boating in to the campsite so 2-300 lbs of coal is in my weight limit. Gathering firewood in the area I’m going to isn’t really feasible at this point. Any tips at all are really appreciated.
Coal takes a long time to ignite and burn freely, so that is where a lot of people fail. A coal fire burns from the bottom up therefore air needs to draft up. Many people start a fire with small twigs or kindling and and add larger pieces of wood then applying coal. I have found that it helps to place large pieces of wood down for a base first then build a fire on top of that. Start with a small combustible, then twigs or thin kindling, then add larger pieces as fire increase. Lightly apply coal, At this point you should be about 30 minutes from the start. After another 15 minutes add more coal across the entire fire box. After another 15 minutes apply another layer of coal. At this point the large wood pieces that were laid first should be burnt up and coal should have dancing ladies.
