Anthracite Coal

[HayZee518]

I am looking for a steady source of anthracite coal. I live in upstate New York above Lake Placid. I have plans to purchase a pot belly stove that burns coal but I need to have a source for coal. No coal, no stove! I am willing to drive within a 250 mile radius of my town St Regis Falls to pick up coal.

[LazyPup]

Hayzee..
you may find it difficult to find antrhacite coal. Antracite is a hard coal that comes from deep mining in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky and most of it is sold directly to power plants or coke producers. You can occassionally find 100 lb bags of anthracite that is used by Ferreirs in the Iron Forge for making horse shoes, but most of them have gone to propane fuel.

Heating stoves will work just as well on Bituminous coal, which is a soft coal normally obtained from shallow mines or surface strip mining in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. If you can locate a working strip mine in your area you can buy "Run of Mine" coal directly at the strip mine by the pickup load. Coal requires no further production other than to screen grade or pulverize it for size.

Bituminous doesnt burn quite as hot as anthracite, but you would never notice the diffence in a pot belly stove unless you were to rig up a forced draft blower.

Call your local sand and gravel supplier and most of them can supply bituminous coal in ton lots.

Coal is not only sold by the ton, but is graded by the average slze.
Normally it is graded as stoker, lump, egg or run of mine.

When i was a kid all we ever used for home heating was Bituminous-"Run of Mine" coal. Run of mine coal is random sized pieces just as it comes from the mine. Normally the pieces will average about 4 inches in diameter or smaller, which is fine for most coal burners. You get the occassional lumps that may be up to a foot in diameter but they break easy with a hammer.