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Bit Coal in Somerset

Posted: Thu. Mar. 07, 2019 7:37 am
by BlackBetty06
Does anyone have any good leads on Bit coal around the sommerset area? I know there is a mine in Myersdale. How about right around the town of Sommerset itself? I think there is a little coal dealer right in the Jennerstown/Boswell area too.

Re: Bit Coal in Somerset

Posted: Mon. Mar. 11, 2019 4:34 pm
by buffalo bob
fieg [FIG] coal berlin pa close to somerset...clean washed soft coal...all differnt sixes...

Re: Bit Coal in Somerset

Posted: Mon. Mar. 11, 2019 10:02 pm
by BlackBetty06
So I ended up picking up a load at Heritage Coal in Meyersdale. They had run of mine and let me hand pick through it. I picked up several boulders football to beach ball size. Also picked up a good bit of softball size pieces. 80 bucks per ton. I threw a chunk in my anthracite fire and a chunk in my woodstove. This stuff burns nowhere close to what the stuff from Pittsburgh area burns like. The Pittsburg stuff burned like an oil soaked rag. Big yellow flames, lots of smoke and lit instantly. This stuff is harder to light and burns with very little smoke, almost could be described as like a semi anthracite from what it seems the little bit I played with it so far.

As it turns out after I bought the coal, one of the places we stopped at for maple syrup actually boarders Feig mining, but I already had the coal from Heritage. Here’s a few pic of the 880 pound haul

Re: Bit Coal in Somerset

Posted: Tue. Mar. 12, 2019 6:21 am
by CoalJockey
All Pittsburgh coals are high-volatile... anything you find from Somerset or South of there will be low-volatile. It will not make quite as much heat as the Pittsburgh seams but it won’t fill your flue full of soot on the 2nd day either. :yes:

Re: Bit Coal in Somerset

Posted: Tue. Mar. 12, 2019 7:26 am
by BunkerdCaddis
CoalJockey wrote:
Tue. Mar. 12, 2019 6:21 am
... anything you find from Somerset or South of there will be low-volatile.
CJ, How would you compare that to the Fisher Nut? and heat wise?

Re: Bit Coal in Somerset

Posted: Tue. Mar. 12, 2019 11:34 am
by CoalJockey
They seem to be very similar, the coal in Lycoming County is the closest thing we have found to Somerset coal. The Fisher coal is a low-vol coal as well.

As a rule of thumb, Somerset County was ideal for house coal and we hauled out of the area and into our yard since back in the 1940’s and had close family involved in stripping operations there. The Russians bought out the preparation plant in about 2010 and we got the boot. The Canadians own it today and they do let out some house coal from time to time but we never went back after that.

Burns cleaner, less smoke, less soot, less gas than Pittsburgh but perhaps a little less heat. High-vol Pittsburgh coals are ideal for outdoor boilers though and we sell a lot of that here too.

Re: Bit Coal in Somerset

Posted: Wed. Mar. 13, 2019 7:37 pm
by BlackBetty06
I just sprinkled a full shovel full of the bituminous fines along the front of the hopper in my 50-93. When the fines hit the hot anthracite there was a couple flashes of orange flames and some very small wisps of smoke. I closed the door and the bit coal instantly burned with blue flames just like the anthracite. I went outside and observed the chimney. I you focused very closely you could just barely make out some wisps of smoke. Easily less than someone smoking a cigarette. Im interested to see what a full firebox of this coal would do. Im thinking this coal may not burn very easily in a fireplace grate like the pittsburgh coal does.