Coke? left over

Hi, I burning a small Godin stove using coal from the Paonia,CO region. Its small pieces (1 " or less) and it goes out at night and leaves lots of what must be coke in the firebox. While it is burning it does make heat, but one has to fiddle with it a lot by adding small amounts of fuel, as adding too much will kill the fire. Is the coke just a characteristic of this coal?
I would add more coal (deeper) but I am using the lower smoke exit from the firebox because the upper outlet will not fit into the fireplace chimney (too high to clear) and I am reluctant to cover the smoke outlet with coal. Maybe I need to change this. I have an oval Godin that will fit.

The stove burns wood well.

There is a source of oiled coal in NM that I could use. Previously I used coal from the Dexter MT mine, but that has been a while and I don't remeber how it burnt.

Is your stove like the one in this thread?
HURRY! OPEN THE DOORS AND TURN ON THE FAN!

I believe these stoves are more designed to burn Anthracite (hard coal) than the Bituminous coals that you're getting from the Paonia area.
The coal you have seems like it's stoker coal or slack coal (about 1/4" to 1" in size). You can burn this size coal in a hand fired stove but it will be harder to control and tends to burn more quickly than larger sized coals. I would try lump coal. Lump coal sizes can vary greatly but most commonly it's baseball to football in size. Obviously you wouldn't be able to use football sized coal in this stove but baseball size should work better than the smaller coal you're now using.
You mentioned NM...are you in the Paonia area or where are you located?
Can you post photos of this "coke"?

I'm in NM. The coal I am using is stoker coal, but its hard. No anthracite near here. Right now I can't take photos, but there is quite a bit of lower density stuff left over. Its a bit like charcoal. I found a bit of the Dexter lump coal left over from before and I'll try that.

Sorry, Yes it is like the one in the thread about a smoking Godin. I do have to lite paper in mine to start the draft, but then it can roar with teh door open.

willysmn wrote:The coal I am using is stoker coal, but its hard. No anthracite near here.

Right. The term "hard coal" is used interchangeably depending on where you are at. Back East hard coal indicates Anthracite but out West coal from Utah/Colorado is considered "hard" compared to coals from Wyoming for instance....Just differences in BTU per pound etc.
I believe you can get lump coal from King Coal mine near Durango which would be closer to you...but I could be wrong about that mine.

willysmn wrote:but there is quite a bit of lower density stuff left over. Its a bit like charcoal

That does seem like unburned coal.

Wiilysmn:


Where are you located ? This will help see what type and quality of coal

is available in your area. There is some real good burning coal in the

York Canyon area of NM.

BigBarney