Sorry Don, I don't believe any of your contacts produce wrought iron in "commercial" quantities. There are a couple of European Companies producing Commercial Wrought Iron. When I say expensive, I mean in relation to mild steel prices, a factor of around 5x I think.
I have been involved in two smelts in Canada, we have succesfuly produced bloomery iron both times. It is a long, hard, dirty, process. It's also really neat, I have a little piece from the first bloom on my shelf, how many people in the world can claim to have a chunk of hand made iron which they helped make?.
On a less interesting note, there are a lot of truths above and some myths, you CAN for sure forge weld in a propane forge, both naturally aspirated and forced air types. I make virtually all my work using propane (I don't normally forge weld that stuff) However I always use coal for demonstrations, I use a small handcranked forge which is probably over 100 years old and will still obtain a welding heat, using coal, which is (as someone else stated)converted to coke during the cooking process.
JohnB