Victorian Coal Fireplace

[waytomany?s]

Besides, you have Google.

[waytomany?s]

Cue Rob Schneider, "you can do it!"

[Lightning]

Ahhh, I respect your honesty.. if you were to let us help you thru the procedure I'm confident it would go smoothly but of course that's up to you and what you feel comfortable with doing..

[warminmn]

Ive had more time to think. If you have any Amish communities east of you in Wisconsin, they usually have at least one brick layer, mason person and they arent going to care about coal as they probably burn it themselves. You'd have to give them rides of course. They may even install a stove you have ready. Im thinking for next year of course.

I know Ive found maps of Amish communities but better yet get in touch with Blaschak Coal and ask for coal dealers near you. You will be surprised how many are around and if they sell coal, they may sell stoves or not, but most dealers are Amish in MN, IA, and WI. They likely have someone that does chimney work in their community.

I have no idea if that satisfies any codes or laws or if you care about that, but thats about as good as I can come up with. Treat them good and they will treat you good every time. Good luck.

[fig]

Looks like a good spot to put a base burner insert. Or one of those Franklin type coal stoves.

[minneapolisdude]

I was thinking of a hitzer or something like that. But hey I’m open to ideas and to the challenge. I never thought the Amish would do it!! I get my coal in Pierz, MN. It’s amazing anthracite and one of the best I have tried: Lehigh.

[gardener]

I have a lovely Victorian coal fireplace but I have a problem... it emits a lot of heat and it even lasts through the night. However, in the morning the fuel appears to be too "cold" to ignite new anthracite I put on top. I cannot floss the coal basket to remove the ash because if I do so then I disturb the coal bed and it goes out. Am I doing something wring here? I just want to get more coal going instead of having to put out the bed completely and restart a new fire anew. Thank you for all of your help!

John.

Before stoves were available to burn anthracite, coal baskets were how the 'folks of yesteryear' burned it. I imagine they probably supplemented with wood as needed. I have never tried it, so I have no experience.

You may try tending the fire more frequently to try to keep the ash cleared, don't wait until the fire begins to cool. That probably means waking up earlier to tend the fire. Trial and error, figure out how much and what slicing and poking it will tolerate before the fire burns out on you.

I am not telling you what to do; if it were me, I would shop for a coal basket that has an integrated shaker grate. I have not seen many with integrated shaker grate for sale, but I am also not shopping coal baskets, but I have seen them. Also, once I found one I was willing to buy, first figure how the shaker is shaken. It'd be pretty expensive to buy it and ship only to discover its too difficult to get leverage to shake it. You are going to have a whole basket full to have to jostle. -- If I couldn't find a free standing basket with integrated shaker grate, I would consider a coal fireplace, sometimes referred to as a open coal fireplace insert, provided I found one that fit in my fireplace. I see those for sale frequently and most of those have some sort of shaker grate.

Your thread title says "Victorian Coal Fireplace", if your house's age is from the Victorian era, very likely your fireplace was constructed to have an open coal burning fireplace insert, with summer cover. Most Victorian era houses I have seen, a previous owner removes the insert thinking no one will ever burn coal in it again, that will free space up in the firebox to burn wood.