Pros and Cons of Gas and Coal

You have two main options for your forge, coal fired and gas fired. Coal fired forges tend to be a little more labor intensive in maintaining the fire quality and heat, instead of having the easily controllable fire of the gas forge. However, you have added versatility in regards to fine control of the heat and fire size.

Gas and coal are your two main options. If you are willing to spend a little more time keeping the fire clean and hot, and will be using the forge for long periods of time, the coal forge is the better choice. If you want ease of use and may only be using the forge for short periods of time, and only intermittently, then a gas forge is a better choice.

You can either build or buy a gas forge, if you build one, it will cost you about $200, or $150 if you are thrifty. Buying a forge could be the better choice, if you have little mechanical skills or no access to a grinder/plasma cutter or a welder, you may be better off spending the $300-450 needed to buy one pre-made. Gas forges are easy to light and maintain, they just need a bit of adjustment to prevent undue scale formation on the metal. Gas forges are also generally burn cleaner burning than coal, and the fuel is much more readily available. If you want ease of use, and aren't interested in tweaking everything that can be tweaked to get the hottest fire possible, than you will do well with a gas forge.

Finding a pre-made coal forge is more difficult, because of the added size and bulkier construction. You will likely need to build your own from scratch. If you build your own, though, you have very fine control over how big you want it, how you want it to look, and what material you make it out of. Building a coal forge can cost anywhere from $50 to $2000, depending on the size and materials. Coal forges are often bigger and more expensive than gas forges, and the fuel is often hard to find, and not always good quality. To build a hot clean coal fire, you do need a measure of experience, and good quality coal or coal coke, which can be expensive and time consuming to obtain. If you can find a steady supplier of good coal, and are skilled at lighting hot fires, you will do well with a coal forge's versatility.

I recommend that you build your own forge, regardless of whether it's coal or gas you decide to use. Not only will you save money, but you are able to say that you built it, and that makes it special.