Mining My Own Christmas Coal

We're headed to California to mine for everyone's favorite Christmas present: coal. One of the earliest power sources discovered, coal can create electricity or be the perfect stocking stuffer!
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How to Make Everything
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TyelorD, Daemon Rene, Amelia Grant, Kevin Shuttic, Erik Språng, Daniel Sixta, Lee Schnee, Iain Bailey, Sean Brooks, alex latzko, Stephen DeCubellis, Fruitymasterz, John Gregg, alkalinekats, Lana Sinapayen, Daffyd Wagstaff, Chad Nodo, David Beckett, Adrian Noland, Estoky Designs, Eric Moore, Phil, Benjamin Maitland, Sandy & Jayremy Lester, Larry Ullman, Skylar MacDonald, Maimus32, Stephen C Strausbaugh, Dylan Rich, Jason Kaczmarsky, Antonio Rios-Ochoa, Liz Roth, Jason Lewis, Andrew Nichols, Susan M. George, and Daniel Laux
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Created and Hosted by Andy George
Co-Hosted and Assistance by Lauren Lexvold
Camera and Cinematography by Daniel Garritsen
Primary Editing by Joseph Knox-Carr
Music by Taylor Lewin: taylorlewin.com...

[@htme]

Let me know your favorite holiday present to GIVE in the comments... besides coal of course!

[@GoldenTNT]

I really admire your passion to bring us this content all year round!! I can’t even imagine the work that’s behind every video of yours!! I mean even my videos (which are pretty underwhelming) take a lot of work, but yours are basically a documentary!!!

[@Olive_Bradford]

I think you should give difrent failed creations

[@pickelboi872]

Cocaine

[@evaristoaguirre2544]

Man that sucks you got coal for Christmas and you got mine it yourself. That's tough

[@johnbrown2163]

Cash Money. Currency goes far.

[@m1_garand434]

Kid is good: gets little wooden toy Kid is bad: gets the means to start revolution

[@Rikhardi]

So that's how Hitler did it

[@benitomussolini1510]

@@Rikhardi How I did it too.

[@CertifiedHuntingHornNoob]

@@benitomussolini1510 lol also you're uniform looks nice.

[@DSperformance96]

@@benitomussolini1510 che bello vederti..

[@jakobborghus4689]

Sounds about right

[@jerbe4r198]

You know, if I was running this channel, I would’ve never thought of that. Perfect time for Christmas and where you are in the timeline.

[@CoolAsFreya]

So smart right!

[@dildoshwagins2222]

He’s in the timeline that’s what matters

[@Purin1023]

I'm always amazed at how far these episodes are planned in advance. I always think "Man that sure is wasteful, going across the country for 1 material." but it turns out Andy actually visited 15 different states for 30 types of raw material that he might need years down the line during that trip. Makes me wonder how many different materials they are still sitting on, waiting for relevant videos to come out to be used.

[@zuika1805]

He might as well also have some uranium laying around in his warehouse waiting to be used for his nuclear plant episode.

[@Orzorn]

@@zuika1805 *The DOE would like to know his location*

[@426shelby426]

@@Orzorn from what I know it is legal to have uranium at home

[@garethbaus5471]

@@426shelby426 only depleted uranium or unrefined ore and only in small quantities.

[@erikblarg5498]

@@garethbaus5471 Have you heard of the "Radioactive Boy Scout?"

[@michaelszostek3276]

I work at an Anthracite coal mine in Pennsylvania. Anthracite is less common than the Bituminous and burns so much hotter and cleaner. The coal you are getting is Bituminous which is softer and dirtier. Anthracite is so hard its brittle like glass and shiny. I could possibly get you some footage of what we do and I could even get you some. Around Eastern Pennsylvania the Anthracite coal veins come right to the surface. My mine and others around are taking advantage of the largest vein in the world called the mammoth vein. Anthracite coal is used for far more things than just burning as fuel. It's used in the medical field, for electronics, and many other things.

[@LzyLzr]

*Doesn't get coal from santa* HTME: "fine, I'll do it myself"

[@JosephStalin-hv8en]

😂😂😂

[@Nascarnate100]

Psst there may be children watching these videos and looking at the comments…

[@shanoobs8383]

You might want to remove this comment

[@LegendOfTheRee]

Underrated

[@garethbaus5471]

When I was a kid my mother asked me if I wanted Santa to bring me coal and apparently I did. Rocks that can burn seem like a cool thing to me.

[@JosephStalin-hv8en]

You mean you burn santa by seting you fire place with fire😂😂

[@megapikachu66]

HTME in 2050: "Anyway guys today we are going to be making our very own fission reactor"

[@whowhatwhyhow]

It's like minecraft, but IRL

[@gggggart8732]

Give him some credit, that won't take 30 years

[@carterrissmiller2510]

on the track he is i wouldnt doubt that he would have a steam engine by the next year or two.

[@bearcatben4762]

Andy could make an RTG within probably a year of extracting uranium, it would probably get him arrested and irradiated but it would be possible

[@shnozbub2539]

Today we’re building are own hadron collider

[@y33t23]

In Germany we celebrate Nikolaus on 6. of December and when I was a child my parents always told me if I misbehaved he would bring me coal, but it never happened so I started saying "It isn't gonna happen anyways!" so my dad probably took some Briketts we had left from the Summer and put them with my presents. I still got all other presents, the coal was just extra, but that taught me a bit of respect, at least for that evening 😂

[@Sinaeb]

A gave you the source of your house burning spree

[@sirtobacco2000]

In Romania we celebrate Saint Nick on 6 of December but Kids get a rod if they are bad

[@ommsterlitz1805]

we know what you germans used to do with coals and why you are stuck with this pollution instead of nuclear plants the world won't forget

[@carlos_casadogarcia]

In spain we have the three wise men on the 6th

[@jcrides1320]

Wait Santa's not real?😁

[@aidanhart9871]

When I was a kid I thought coal was rare ..... all the legendary swords all forged using coal ...... so imagine my joy when I get a 20kg bag of coal for Christmas

[@inventor121]

My parents refused to give me flammables for christmas, mostly because they are nice, but partially because I knew how to start a fire.

[@aidanhart9871]

@@JoshuaNorton lol no xD I wanted coal and I suspect they wanted me to stop digging holes in the backyard trying to find some

[@TheAwillz]

😆 lucky boy

[@jenniferschmitzer299]

@@aidanhart9871 You are obviously in the wrong geographical belt. I got coal and also shite loads of slag in my backyard. Mind you, the coal in my back garden might not be fine enough for use but its definitely under my house. Yes, I live in a place that was coal rich and made steel and stone pottery a long time back.

[@aidanhart9871]

@@jenniferschmitzer299 New Zealand. I had plenty of volcanic glass around

[@cri_kitty7967]

make torches! that cave was looking awfully dark!

[@catmagedsproductions1998]

Its simple it only needs coal and stick

[@torg2126]

Lamp, not a torch

[@JosephStalin-hv8en]

Okay

[@JosephStalin-hv8en]

@@torg2126 he is tinking minecraft dont mind him😂😂😂

[@ninja1676]

Spark it with some Flint and steel.

[@psophilsalva5888]

"If you are naughty, you will get coal" Andy, planning to create an steam engine:Joke on you, I'm into that sht

[@Ogre-zr5zk]

North Eastern PA if covered with old coal mining sites / strippings pits with lots of loose coal still around, they only cared about the best hard shiny anthracite and dumped the stuff that looked like what you found. My family use to collect it for heating my great aunt's house when I was a kid.

[@listen1st267]

I was on a mission trip in West Virginia and you can still find small coal veins everywhere. In one instance, we were digging post holes to build a fence and we kept running into coal just 6in below the surface

[@loganuck1451]

Imagine being lucky enough to get coal for christmas

[@starshot5172]

Why though

[@hialsohi772]

@@starshot5172 you can sell it for high price

[@blakewhorton1285]

@@hialsohi772 coal is valuable only in large amounts i think it’s worth like 30$ per ton

[@justice4most]

All I got for Christmas was covid.

[@hialsohi772]

@@blakewhorton1285 then burn your enemies and steal thier momey

[@Trafficcoordinator]

I've lived in San Francisco my whole life and never knew a coal mine was in the city.

[@rajanrao]

same

[@gabrieltrebbi3079]

That’s cuz you are from San Francisco 😭

[@Trafficcoordinator]

@@TacoPoweredTimeTraveler its by lands end. Its in san Francisco

[@a.b17]

You should check out the Pioneer Tunnel mine tour in Ashland, PA. They'll take you into the mine, and I'm sure they'd let you take a small sample from within the mine.

[@jessegimbel]

It’s a great tour!

[@flixbyyogi3850]

Just fly to Pa there’s coal laying around everywhere 😂

[@CertifiedHuntingHornNoob]

Lucky you. You can start you're own revolution.

[@jebshellhole4652]

As a PA coal miner I can confirm lol

[@seniorvenusdigital3904]

PA has black gold...

[@MinkSquared]

Whats Pa

[@seniorvenusdigital3904]

@@MinkSquared pennsylvania you door knob

[@justsomerandomguy8210]

My 1000+ hours in Minecraft is impressed with you

[@JosephStalin-hv8en]

He forgot to craft torches😂😂

[@Runedragonx]

"We wish you a merry *ZEGMAK!"*

[@eddie.648]

What is “ZEGMAK”?

[@MarkarthCityGuard]

commenting so i see the answer if its given

[@KrakenCasting]

Commenting for answer

[@admirnaruto]

@@eddie.648 Zagmuk translated means "beginning of the year". It's a Mesopotamia festival celebrating the New Year. It happened in December and lasted 12 days. It celebrates the triumph of Marduk, the patron deity of Babylon, over the forces of Chaos, symbolized in later times by Tiamat. The battle between Marduk and Chaos lasts 12 days, as does the festival of Zagmuk. But last December they decided to celebrate Zagmuk, I assume, so it's not connected to any modern religious celebration, And therefore everyone can celebrate it.

[@eddie.648]

@@admirnaruto thank you

[@IndianaDundee]

6:48 “Is this the clean stuff.” Lmao!

[@kayagorzan]

Indeed

[@SaszaDerRoyt]

Every time I'm on the coast of the North Sea (UK) I collect some sea coal, I recently used it in my forge and got the hottest heat yet

[@thefinesthobbo4524]

If you wanted coal, you should've called me up. My river is so deep it hits a coal bed and I can pick up chunks just lying there.

[@JosephStalin-hv8en]

But if its coal try to burn first let it dry if it burn thats coal if not just normal black rock

[@espressocookie8965]

first, where is it, second, did you burn some of it?

[@jackyoung1155]

I want some for forging

[@TheBlackBeltPanda]

Should've just head to PA, tons of coal just laying around everywhere lol

[@WouterVerbruggen]

In the Netherlands, most people don't do presents at Christmas but we celebrate Sinterklaas on the 5th of December. Instead of getting coal, when you are naughty Sinterklaas takes you in his bag back to Spain where he lives the rest of the year! XD

[@fede98k54]

I mean, a free trip to Spain does sound nice xD just think of how much it would cost in euros just for the trip

[@jimmydean9087]

honestly when your done with this you should make a Book detailing all of this.

[@saveitforparts]

There are some coal exposures in Southwestern Minnesota! I found some along the Minnesota River last year.

[@hunters36forgingwoodworkin73]

P.S you can use coal on a coal forge. Also all you need is clay or mud brick to make a coal forge.

[@garethbaus5471]

You only need a hollow tube some dirt and some water to make a coal forge.

[@darealpoopster]

He literally mentioned forging, dumbo

[@foty8679]

@@garethbaus5471 He should make coke

[@JacobHollis96]

I remember getting a bag of coal for Christmas once. I was confused at first but did a taste test, and it tasted like cinnamon. Turns out it was a bag of cinnamon candy that looked like coal.

[@calebshort2169]

Why the hell didn’t you come to Appalachia. We literally have coal seams in the high walls on the side of the road. You could have harvested coal with just about no effort to look for it.

[@JustinTopp]

It would also be a lot higher quality coal for smithing than the lignite he’s now Getting from here in North Dakota

[@JustinTopp]

@Alan Hardcastle I think the lignite can be turned into coke. But it will be a fairly light coke that burns fast. It should work for blacksmithing. It just burns faster than other grades. and can’t get quite as hot which is fine. It likely also burns a bit dirtier. It’s not ideal but it should work.

[@doubledarefan]

@@JustinTopp " fairly light coke that burns fast" So diet coke, then?

[@JustinTopp]

@@doubledarefan exactly haha

[@jenniferschmitzer299]

Just couldve gone down my back steps and looked in the side garden. Id like to come visit the appalachias.. seems like home

[@arnavtanpure2631]

Please make a compound microscope from scracth with primitive tech

[@gregkientop559]

As a geologist, coal is referred to as a mineraloid and not as a rock or classic mineral. The best coal, known as anthracite, is shiny like a glass. Low grade coal is brownish (lignite). Mid-grade/common coal breaks like brittle plastic. During the depression, my grandfather mined coal from riverbanks in Iowa (northeastern IA) as it was free. Check it out!

[@krushanttanpure2742]

Please make a compound micro scope from scratch with primitive technology

[@samuelanstey8426]

Iron age so happy saturnalia everyone

[@LaserFur]

when you get to steel just remember that the temperature a fire burns at depends on the input air temperature. The is a paining of several fires going up a hill and I think they were using the heat from the lower fire to heat the air going into the upper fire. This approach would take a lot of chimneys and ducts, but an easier method would be to just blow air down a pipe that is inside the chimney. The pipe would would be heated by the fire and then the air would be routed under the fire. A friend melted the steel grate that held the wood playing around with this approach.

[@hellspawn4083]

I wish you all a merry zagmuk, and a happy new year, let's hope it's better then 2020.

[@jammehrmann1871]

It'll be

[@TaxConsumer]

The zagmak song is great.

[@SF-li9kh]

Wow. I like the frequency of the videos released 👍🏻 Merry Christmas Andy and Lauren 😁. It's a shame I don't know the name of the cameraman. Merry Christmas to him too.

[@santiagoalvarez9741]

HTME: Carbon mostly comforted by carbon Chemistries: I don’t see anything wrong Everyone else: “No body: HTME: Carbon is made of carbon”

[@joaoarturdasilvapiteira9239]

Just misbehave all year long and wait for that free wrapped coal under the tree

[@heyandy889]

The true big brain play

[@RealAndySkibba]

New HTME? Santa got my letter.

[@arnavtanpure2631]

Please make a compound microscope from scratch with primitive technology at least 2000x

[@Real_Ship_Engineer]

Is this a prequel to Coke Oven?

[@NSEasternShoreChemist]

There is a fairly large amount of mineable coal on the surface in Nova Scotia. Check near Joggins, there are lots of thin seams exposed on the surface there. There's also some exposed coal near Sydney Mines.

[@angelwhispers2060]

Literally the whole point of giving Coal as a Christmas gift to naughty children was as a warning that if they did not shape-up they would end up as coal miners. At least that was the threat in the UK. The German tradition of giving Coal for naughty children was more the compassionate thing, that even a misbehaving child did not deserve to freeze to death. So the coal was there to keep them warm so that they could grow up and learn to do better.

[@beautifulsmall]

Pedantic warning. Coal's origins were vascular plants (not just plants) which had evolved with lignin lined cell walls. These new plants were unable to be broken down by the fungi at the time so just piled up. A few years later the fungi evolved to eat the lignin and no more coal was laid down. I believe that's the current thinking. Great video's

[@Insorainity]

Imagine if the industrial revolution actually started because some kid kept getting coal and was really smart

[@johnpossum556]

I found coal on the coast in Duluth once. It was very smooth like driftwood so I think it fell off a ship.

[@StealthTheUnknown]

Learning to light the world for yourself if the world ever leaves you in darkness. Probably one of the best Christmas gifts anyone could ever ask for.

[@Camo0101]

Putting santa out of business, eh?

[@Badgamer-pk4cy]

y e s

[@Okwow471]

yup

[@shipofbats9134]

No he works for Santa

[@ctastrophe]

If you're ever near SF again and want coal that doesn't require timing the tides or rock climbing, about an hour's drive east of SF is the Black Diamond Mines regional preserve that has about a dozen abandoned coal mines. As a kid I used to go spelunking there all the time. You may have to walk around a sign that says "Danger Do Not Enter" but that's the only security lol. I'm pretty sure it's illegal but I've never seen a park ranger there

[@ChanceKearns]

In 400-300 BC a grinder was invented that used a pole on a convex rock put on top of a concave rock, it was spun with the pole like a crank and was used to Mill grains

[@Odesious25]

The freaking zagmuk song had me rolling

[@Psiberzerker]

Madrid NM is a great place to collect low-grade tailings from the mine there. It's closed, with a small museum, but there's piles and slopes of it. Some of them right by the road. I used to have a Gasifier powered Jeep (CJ5) that I ran off those tailings. So, that's about the quality of that ore.

[@joshuabaughn3734]

Run an bellows to the forge then put in coal. Make sure the clinker can be broken up and add an exhaust vent according to modern codes, boom: coal forge! Just don't get your steel too hot or it will burn!

[@jebshellhole4652]

As an Appalachian coal miner I find this video very interesting

[@green_zip101]

There is a coal vein next to chartiers creek in crafton, PA. I've grabbed a pick axe a few times and harvested some.

[@abadatha]

I love the little tortie cat.

[@davidhobbs5679]

Just letting you know that coal is graded differently to regular minerals. High grade coal are coals that burn with a higher calorific value, the order is generally peat, brown coal, bituminous coal and then black coal (anthracite). Looking at the coal you got from the mine, while there might be alot of no coal compounds in it, it appears to be bituminous coal(possible anthracite but im guessing not) the coal your friend got was most definitely brown coal. So in short that abandoned mine has a higher grade coal but what looks like alot of gange material in the ore.

[@ian6303]

next time on how to make everything: naturally curing black lung

[@shanekuchler9569]

All you have to do is walk literally any railroad track in the United States and pick up pure coal, It is all over since trains bring coal all over the country. That is how we get tons of it that you can actually sell back to the mining companies. By the way, that ladder was tall enough to reach the opening from the outside, you have to extend it fully and actually have a spotter to hold it while you climb.

[@maxpowers3494]

If you go to the train tracks next lillydale lake in West Saint Paul, there is coal that the trains going to the Xcel Power Plant drop by accident, there is quite a bit of it.

[@Infro-]

He did it! What a madlad.

[@BlackDragonWitheHawk]

I would suggest to look into coal coke from charcoal which is possible and helps to use charcoal for uses that normaly need coal. If I am not mistaken Germany had only brown coal and charcoal during the ww times and had to develop and invest in that route to purify and improve lesser coals.

[@arnavtanpure2631]

Can you make a compound microscope from scracth

[@KargorocLP]

Yesssss the goblin voice saying Zagmuk has returned!!

[@benGman69]

6:28 You can tell you've got quite a good stone chipping technique by now

[@SitioLumbia]

If santa will give me coal, I want a whole sack.

[@IslandHermit]

There are two problems with coal versus charcoal. First, coal usually needs to be dried before using, either in a kiln or by letting it sit in dry storage for several months. This is especially true of surface coal. Second, most coal contains impurities, in particular sulphur. If you try to smelt iron using coal these impurities will combine with the liberated iron leaving you more or less back where you started. So while coal is great for getting the temperatures needed to smelt iron you have to be careful to vent the combustion products away from the ore and you will still need a purer form of carbon, such as charcoal, to act as the reducing agent. Alternatively you can cook the sulphur and other contaminants out of coal, turning it into coke which can then be burned directly with the iron ore the same as you would charcoal.

[@gavturgoose1427]

You should explore jewellery making since you’re wayyy past it plus I’ve recently got into lost wax casting rings so it would be super dope

[@jenniferschmitzer299]

just rings? what about bigger pieces?

[@gavturgoose1427]

@@jenniferschmitzer299 im not that good yet

[@scubasteve9512]

Merry zagmuk to you too!

[@antoninonigrelli661]

The new caves updaye really went good

[@tonyaboyer4547]

The end credits 😂 I’m dying!

[@gepotat]

That outro absolutely killed me, nice work

[@jamesonbetts1832]

Jingles approves of teaching his miners proper techniques.

[@nekomasteryoutube3232]

I imagine like most people I've never seen coal in person, so I actually wouldn't mind a lump of coal (preferably anthacite since it looks nicer than lignite or Bituminous coal)

[@mercurywoodrose]

do it. i got one riding a steam train that was coal powered. get that lump of coal, it will totally put you in touch with your ancestors.

[@crashgaming8289]

Poggers. Might just reach the temps needed for steel with this better fuel source!😁

[@dustinlathan9131]

Here in Tennessee where im at the local river has coal in it from old railroads plus we have a coal mining / coke oven museum here in my town with 2 mines that are unfortunately closed but going up the mountain on the main highway you can see the layer of coal that you can stop an get some from

[@Yoshikaable]

I think it's cooler to get your own coal from the surface than it is to get coal from a pit mine for your purposes. I would hypothesize that the early discovery of coal would be that surface stuff, not the special pit mined stuff, since in order to begin pit mining, they need to begin by extracting the surface materials, first. I am new to your channel but I really enjoy everything I have seen so far. Merry zagmuk!

[@NoName-cu4ff]

I mean if someone gave me a chunk of coal they mined themself I couldn't be mad.

[@KnightsWithoutATable]

If I recall, there are large deposits of coal that were formed by wildfires from a time before fungus had evolved to break trees down.

[@epauletshark3793]

I have asked for coal many times, but santa never gives me any.

[@80Kam08]

He is like dr stone

[@gfj06]

The earliest ive been for htme

[@zaphodbond]

Hey you are at the iron age now, so merry Saturnalia!!!

[@jessewilson8676]

You should visit eastern Montana or Alaska, in Alaska many beaches have large chunks of coal in Montana the Yellowstone river has large chunks of coal on gravel bars and you can see large quantities in layers along were the river carved it....pretty much the same in ND..

[@Ral_Sera]

I can't wait until he makes a Lathe machine

[@keysn9070]

Here in germany there is tonnes of high quality coal, and you can easily get samples

[@TaxConsumer]

In Alaska it is a great gift.

[@toxicdemon1071]

99% comments are Christmas related and 1% are also Christmas related

[@Sp.Be.W]

One word. Dedication.

[@williamh123456789]

Merry Christmas to you and your family

[@MrBlack0950]

We wish you a merry zegmak, we wish you a merry zegmak, we wish you a merry zegmak, and a happy new year!

[@InfectedChris]

In northeast PA, you can pick coal up anywhere.

[@Mætthæw]

5:00 dang he got a weird leg

[@lukefuka7256]

In Homer Alaska the coal washes up on the beaches so you should check it out, it was super cool to me

[@jon8706]

Probably need to make some torches and food now that you have coal

[@iankadrmas6727]

I actually live about and hour away from the North Dakota mine and so we went there on a feild trip in 4th grade and they let us all take some coal with us.

[@outsidealone]

Merry Zagmuk, all!

[@meatlemonade9938]

ancient Chinese people finding a rock that burns: 👁️👄👁️