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Switched from a coal rake to a garden hoe for my fire pot and I'm never going back
For about four years I dug around my fire pot with a little rake I made out of rebar, and I thought that was just how it was done. The problem was I could never get the clinker out of the corners without dragging half my coal bed with it, so I'd end up burning way more fuel than I needed to. Back in March a guy named Hal at a hammer-in over in Shipshewana showed me he just uses a short-handled garden hoe with the blade ground down thin, and it scrapes the pot clean in two passes. I picked one up at a farm store for $19 and cut the handle down to about 14 inches. The wider blade pulls clinker forward instead of pushing it around, and I can shape the coal mound way faster since the hoe edge is flat. My fuel use dropped enough that a 40 lb bag now gets me through two full sessions instead of one and a half. Curious what the rest of you use to clean out your pot, because I'm wondering if a hoe is too wide for smaller forges.
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