An old vacuum cleaner does make a good electric blower - with a little "adjusting". But the simplest, and cheapest electric blower I have ever found is a hair dryer/blower! Yup, one of those L or gun type cheapo ones from any large discount store. I picked one up at wally-world for 10 bucks a couple years ago when I was helping a friend set up his forge. An industrial blower would have run about $60 usd - at that time. But for $10 that hair blower/dryer works great. It even has 2 speeds. And it doesn't matter that it's heating up the air a bit, so we never took it apart to diable the heater coil. The outlet was 1 1/2 inches, and fit right onto the end of the pipe we were using for the forge. A little "duct tape" holds them together. We did worry about heat traveling back up that pipe and melting the plastic hair dryer, but so far there have been no problems. The air blowing through has kept the end of the iron pipe cool enough.
We did have to do one thing to "modify" the hair dryer, though. We had to cover over 2/3's to 3/4's of the air intake on the side - too much air going through. I mounted a flat plate on the side of my blower with a sheetmetal screw - that I can swivel more open or closed. But on his we just covered the side with duct tape, and then just added/subtracted some until we got the amount of air going through that we wanted.
That classic L or gun type hair dryer/blower is basically just a fancy version of a squirrelcage blower. You can also find them inside the heater of your vehicle (or at an auto salvage yard). So we chose the $10 option versus the $60 new industrial version. And if it ever does break down, a replacement is a short drive away. It's been running for several years now with no problems.
So don't overly stress out about an electric blower for your forge. A usable one might just be as close as buried in the bottom drawer in your bathroom/bedroom/closet.
Any type of coal will work, but the best is Blacksmith Coal (soft bituminus). But regular heating stoker coal will also work (hard anthracite). But the stoker coal is more messy. It bubbles out more oils and tars as it is cooking down to that coke level where you can forge with it.
Bar-b-que charcoal briquets will work, but can be a mess. They are made from ground up wood charcoal, mixed with clay and glues, and then pressed into those briquets. Those glues and that clay can interfer with the heat, and leave a big mess. And you really do need to bust up those briquets into small pieces if you are going to use them. But LUMP charcoal is available also. This is just charcoal - charred wood - and not ground up. Lots of people are now using it to cook with instead of the briquets. So if you look around, you should be able to find it at a store/market, or ask the manager about ordering some.
Just some humble thoughts to pass along.
Mikey - yee ol' grumpy blacksmith out in the Hinterlands
