Zack

You should contact Derrick and Nick at the New England School of Metalwork in Auburn, Maine and ask if they know of any suppliers.

Zack,

You may want to chat with Dan O'Connor (danocon) over on Don Fogg's forum also. He's the guru on making charcoal, and afaik he makes it using pine. The issue in the US is that the vast majority of charcoal is made from hardwood, difficult to acquire in bulk regardless, and primarily oriented toward the culinary uses, which leads to the selection of wood and the way it's fired, which still produces smoke for the flavor factor.

I looked into getting "white charcoal" quite a bit, which afaik is what Japanese smiths use (I'm not an expert), and the only options I could drudge up required minimum orders of a full shipping container full, from china.

Charcoal is my preferred forging medium also, but I've mostly given up on it. Dan O'Conner however is very much into the Japanese side of things I believe, and may be willing to make a batch for you guys, considering the reason.

Japanese bladesmiths traditionally use pine charcoal if my memory is correct. Who is the bladesmith and how did you get him to agree to visit your shop? Check with your local tree cutting services. Some of them make charcoal out of the stuff they cut and sell it to folks like me who use charcoal forges.