Lighting a Fire

Here is an essay in pictures of how I light the forge fire. Coal needs a high temperature to ignite. I build a kindling wood fire to start the coal. You can see I split some very fine splinters to start the fire and light larger kindling. I used Birch Bark to start the kindling as it is plentiful in my wood pile and is historically accurate. Paper would work too. I use a log cabin method to pile my kindling and then light it from the bottom. When the fire is good and hot I start placing chunks of partially burned coal from the previous day’s fire (coke) onto the fire. Pull the bellows and the fire is hot!