Cannel Coal (Fire Place Coal)

BUMPING THIS

Poor fellow was wanting to sell his coal and that coal is hard to locate.

Not that I even know what it is,

but I did search on CL and found on LI that there is a coal supplier with cannel coal.
Marks Firewood and Propane has a few ads;
says by the bag or ton.

Can this be used in a fireplace?
Or only coal stoves?

GoodProphets wrote:Not that I even know what it is,

but I did search on CL and found on LI that there is a coal supplier with cannel coal.
Marks Firewood and Propane has a few ads;
says by the bag or ton.

Can this be used in a fireplace?
Or only coal stoves?

As I understand it, never in a stove...fireplace only. It would burn too uncontrollable for a stove.

I'll have to check if I can get it local.

I have a few fireplaces that obviously wont make it thru the night.

I just like to fire them up for fun and they helped a bit for soothing warmth the last couple weeks.
I still have yet to throw a bit of rice on the fire as that should help.
The crackling of cannel sounds like it would be nice.

A friend's father would pick up big chunks of cannel coal, about the size of a loaf of bread, and burn them in the fireplace. I remember they made for a nice, long burning fire with good flame.

Paul

GoodProphets wrote: The crackling of cannel sounds like it would be nice.

The sound is nice, the flame colors are absolutely beautiful. The smell of some of that stuff could very well cause a divorce.

coaledsweat wrote:

GoodProphets wrote: The crackling of cannel sounds like it would be nice.

The sound is nice, the flame colors are absolutely beautiful. The smell of some of that stuff could very well cause a divorce.

Is that what it takes???

Does anyone know where to source Cannel Coal these days? I have been searching far and wide, to no avail.

Price is not a major concern for me, I am a recreational burner for holiday fireplaces and the like.

I would love any tips on where to source Cannel Coal. Thanks!

Get yourself some Pittsburgh bituminous coal. It’s high volatile bituminous coal. I used to free burn that stuff in my fireplace. Had beautiful flames for hours and was as easy to light as a greased rag!

Cannel has some very beautiful colors to it but the smell will gag you. I have a few big chunks here, for demonstrational purposes only!

Before primative oil wells, natural gas and electricity and discovery of incandesent lightbulbs cannel coal was heavily mined to extract it's liquid oil for use in oil lamps for lighting. Locally here was a shallow 300' vein which was mined and coal loaded in wagons and horses pulled many loads to market. The biggest market was in New York City for lighting homes. A mining town quickly sprang up around this cannel coal deposit and the town was named Cannelton, PA. Later came brick making as the cannel coal was under and over a large deposit of clay and there needed to be a way to get rid of all that clay to get to all the coal. Brick making demand grew as coal oil demand was replaced by petrolem oil. Clay companies were glad when electric generators built power houses and would take the coal away as it was in the way for getting all the clay out. Brick making has dwindled away over the last 30 years but some special color of clay gets mined recently to match bricks on some new federal buildings and historical projects.

Great post Larry! Appreciate learning about that from you.