# Why is there wood in my coal? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 21, 2011, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-wood-in-my-coal/575418 "2011-03-21T00:46:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bewildebeest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@Bewildebeest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bewildebeest)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-wood-in-my-coal/575418/21 "2011-03-21T20:00:32Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I’m sure there are ways in which it is sorted, but as a quasi-nitpick: in my experience, coal is not especially lightweight. It feels like cold, heavy, dirty rock. So,… whats it taste like? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-wood-in-my-coal/575418/22 "2011-03-21T20:24:42Z")
> [@Gary\_T](#): > > A [tarrier](http://www.irontrail.ca/tarriers.html), perhaps? I thought he meant someone who shoes horses, and maybe does his own smithing. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-wood-in-my-coal/575418/23 "2011-03-21T20:27:06Z")
> [@Gary\_T](#): > > A [tarrier](http://www.irontrail.ca/tarriers.html), perhaps? Nah, I believe “farrier”. Farriers are about the most common blacksmiths left in the U.S. (artistic blacksmiths and knife-makers are among the others), and, if they still work with a coal fire, they’d know their coal. Even if a farrier doesn’t make his own horseshoes, he has to heat and shape the shoes to match the hooves of each horse. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-wood-in-my-coal/575418/24 "2011-03-22T04:18:04Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I thought he meant someone who…maybe does his own smithing. > [@kenobi\_65](#): > > …if [farriers] still work with a coal fire, they’d know their coal. While I was familiar with “farrier,” I didn’t know they might work with coal fires. Now I get it. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-wood-in-my-coal/575418/25 "2011-03-22T11:24:44Z")
> [@Gary\_T](#): > > A [tarrier](http://www.irontrail.ca/tarriers.html), perhaps? > > Not part of daily conversation for most of us, but that’s what “number nine coal” in the song “Sixteen Tons” refers to – from [here](http://ask.metafilter.com/119140/16-Tons-of-Number-9-Coal): “Geologists number regional coal seams for reference. There is a ‘Number 9’ seam in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Ohio…” (the vein of coal), and here [one of the mines](http://www.no9mine.com/). > [@TriPolar](#): > > I thought he meant someone who shoes horses, and maybe does his own smithing. > [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Nah, I believe “farrier”. Farriers are about the most common blacksmiths left in the U.S. (artistic blacksmiths and knife-makers are among the others), and, if they still work with a coal fire, they’d know their coal. Even if a farrier doesn’t make his own horseshoes, he has to heat and shape the shoes to match the hooves of each horse. > [@Gary\_T](#): > > While I was familiar with “farrier,” I didn’t know they might work with coal fires. Now I get it. Thanks. Yes, my [female] roomie is a blacksmith trained specifically to shoe horses, though she makes other things as well. She will occasionally set up a shot at a local renn faire [it is a short one of a couple weekends] and teaches smithing in the SCA, and is a member of some sort of artisanal smithing group that is actually international. There is a lot that goes into picking the proper coal, besides impurities that effect air quality, they can be used to amend iron as it is processed into forged goodies [wootz steel as originally produced in India involved adding certain plants and minerals to tweak the different alloys used in the pattern welding process. I would be willing to bet that Japanese smiths did the same when producing the 2 steels used in their pattern welded blades.] The different coals can vary wildly and I know she has 3 or 4 different buckets of coals that she will use to change the regular generic stuff she uses. She also will wander around the scrapyard looking for specific metal junk for their alloys. [she is from Ohio and was doing business with the local amish and mennonites] ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-wood-in-my-coal/575418/26 "2011-03-27T20:15:34Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Is it just me, or does anyone else get excited when they see a coal question and then keep checking back every few minutes to see whether Una has answered yet? I would happily answer coal questions, but I am sometimes away from the board for a few days, or miss a thread. People can PM me of course, but since I’m now a nobody from nowhere, I doubt many connect my name with coal. With respect to the question in the OP, I think Mangetout’s first answer is the most likely one: the coal was stockpiled in a yard which also had wood. If the shoring came off at that rate, it wouldn’t be worth a shit. And in the US with any longwall mine or continuous mining process, the chance of contacting shoring is quite small. Think about how a longwall or continuous miner works for a minute and you’ll realize how scary that might be. [QUOTE=aruvqan] my roomie is a farrier, i hear discussions about exactly _which_ damned mine a particular lump of coal is _from_ How is that for obscure?! [/QUOTE] My professional career for two decades is largely about that. And I’ve answered the “16 tons” question on here so many times it’s not even funny any more. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-wood-in-my-coal/575418.md?page=1)