Wood stove ashes fork

[Frank S]

Often my wood stove will still have a lot of hot coals in it 12 to 18 hours after the last fire was stoked meaning all I really need to do is expose the hot coals toss in some fire starter kindling and layer on a few chunks of larger wood to have my fire going again. Other wise I would have to empty out the ashes and start over'
I decided what I really needed was a fork much like a manure fork but smaller. I started out with 14 30 penny nails laid side by side then welded the heads together then I used a 1/2" sq bar for the stiff back spine I drilled and tapped it to fit an old fireplace brush that was no longer any use then welded the sq bar to the nail heads to make a strong back spine.
By laying the nails head to point this created the spacing I wanted

After assembly I bent the tines slightly

buried under these ashes are some fiery coals

The fork works great

Plenty o fhot coals to start a new fire