Shiny Vs Dull Anthracite

I was just looking at some coal that I bought last year from my local dealer and noticed that some pieces were very shiny and some were dull. Is there any significance to the apperance of the coal and how it burns?

Nope, it is very difficult to tell from appearance how coal will burn.. The shiney coal may just not have bounced and rubbed against other pieces as much, or the dull pieces are slightly dirty with fines.. I've burnt from 6 or more different sources and I've yet to see any correlation between appearance and burn..

Greg l

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Interesting How about hardness? I also noticed that some pieces are hard to break and some are easier.

I in my experience have noticed that the harder coal likes a little more air and longer burn time than the softer stuff. But other than that it burns the same.

Remember that coal is a product of nature. In a single seam of coal there can be variations in the amount of iron, silica [sand] or other minerals.. It just depends on what layers of what vegitation fell and stacked and layered together hundreds of millions of years ago.. So there is bound to be some variations. Anthracite is much more consistant than Bituminous.. Anthracite is much older than Bituminous, so the heat and pressure turning the ancient vegitation into coal has had more time to do it's work..

Bituminous coal has very wide variations in how it burns, volitiles content, water content, ash content etc.. Anthracite is quite consitant.

I see a fair amount of rusty pieces in some coal, and very little in others, it doesn't seem to make any difference in how the coal burns, but obviously there is more iron in the rusty pieces..

I guess the only thing I have noticed which was mentioned in an above post, is the hardness can be HEARD.. when you have very clean and very hard coal it sounds like broken glass as it is shoveled or poured into a bin or hopper.. I can't say that it seems to make much of a difference,, but I have noticed it to be associated with good coal. And clean coal.. the fines seem to muffle sound.

Greg L

The dull pieces are usually not as dense as the high shiny pieces and usually flat on two sides. If you look on the sides of them they should be shiny. This is sometimes referred to as "bone". It's not all coal but more of mixture with a little bit of semi-rock in it. The layer on the flat side is the semi-rock. Some old timers will actually not be too happy if the coal doesn't have some of it in it. You certainly don't want a whole truck load of it but a little isn't going hurt and may actually be beneficial. The other thing to be aware of is coal will get a layer of film on it, try rubbing it and see if the dullness rubs off.

As mentioned you can't tell by the looks, you can have the hardest densest best looking coal in the world but it certainly won't be the "best" for burning. It can get so good that it simply doesn't want to burn. I've never had the privilege of seeing this happen but I know my Uncle put a load in my Grandmothers house once that he said the greatest looking coal he ever saw and he couldn't get it to burn no matter what he did.

LsFarm wrote:
I see a fair amount of rusty pieces in some coal, and very little in others, it doesn't seem to make any difference in how the coal burns, but obviously there is more iron in the rusty pieces..
Greg L

I'm new this year to burning coal and had a truck load deliverd back in May. I started noticing a few rusty pieces and thought it may be iron. Thanks for the info Greg, I didn't want a 24 ton paper weight(bad coal)

Dave

Richard S. wrote:The dull pieces are usually not as dense as the high shiny pieces and usually flat on two sides. If you look on the sides of them they should be shiny. This is sometimes referred to as "bone". It's not all coal but more of mixture with a little bit of semi-rock in it. The layer on the flat side is the semi-rock. Some old timers will actually not be too happy if the coal doesn't have some of it in it. You certainly don't want a whole truck load of it but a little isn't going hurt and may actually be beneficial. The other thing to be aware of is coal will get a layer of film on it, try rubbing it and see if the dullness rubs off.

As mentioned you can't tell by the looks, you can have the hardest densest best looking coal in the world but it certainly won't be the "best" for burning. It can get so good that it simply doesn't want to burn. I've never had the privilege of seeing this happen but I know my Uncle put a load in my Grandmothers house once that he said the greatest looking coal he ever saw and he couldn't get it to burn no matter what he did.

ASH Content was to low any coal that is under 5 % Ash content will not burn white ash coal
Red Ash With that low of ash content will clinker up solid Other red Ash coal with higher ash content will also clinker up do to higher Iron & sulfur content you will see what looks like mental or lead when it starts the fuzion Process
UAE is 6 to 7% you will see that you will get soft clinkers with it in warm weather or burning to hot Fuzion will start at
2500f with some coal And 2900 f with other's

My Great GrandFathers Grandfathers 4 Uncle's and 7 cousins who work in the Deep Mines from the the early teens to the late 70's all said you can't Polish a terd Meaning if is dull it is either Sub Anthracite Bit coal or Bone Bone is usually More of a Gray in color then Black Bone is the Rock that as formed around or in with the coal It has very little carbon in it
It will burn but not all the way threw I know the old timers always said that it will hold the fire longer and hotter But In a hand fed stove or furnace it is a Pita All it will do is jam up the grates or break them In a stoker stove or boiler it is not that bad it will fall out with the ashes in the tub The Farthest most Part of the Southern Anthracite Field where The

Anthracite Field starts Down in Dauphin county and below will Have a lot of Sub Anthracite Mixed it with Anthracite You will find Bone in all of the Anthracite Fields Most of it will be at the Surface out crop Top of the Vein and some mixed in with the coal itself You will see alot more in Surface mining because of the way they mine it the shovle cuts threw it to get to the Vein of coal Deep Mining for the most part will blow off the face of the rock and Open the Vein of coal up and take the coal you will get more coal then rock that way The breaker will take care of the rest getting rid of the rock slate and dirt a good breaker will give Nothing but coal But with any of them sometimes They miss some and you will end
up getting some More then other's You will see more of it when the Breaker are Running fast to keep up with the demand of coal Like Now

I had gotten a delivery of coal from a local dealer back when I first bough the Harman. Great looking coal, nice and shiny. Wouldn't burn, very poor heat. I smashed some of it up and fed it through the stoker. Wouldn't burn in that either. You can't go by the look of the coal, like JC said, you can't polish a turd!

Well thanks to this older post it answered my question, I thought bone was animal related. Also thought the shinier the coal the better it was. Learning something new every day.

I have found a pile of very cheap nut coal locally and I was thinkin' wow that looks so shiny and is that good or bad. I think now I will burn a few buckets first. As wiz says - live and learn.