I used to make campfires frequently and generally burned them down to ashes every time, I love a good fire. So learning about how to make charcoal seemed a no-brainer until I read about the air restricted method. With the drought here in Georgia US digging a hole in the ground and making smoke for a couple of days seemed a recipe for how to get a ticket(and make neighbors unhappy). So instead I pick my days and do small burns in cans with bottom venting and I burn from the top down, which produces very little smoke and still makes a lot of charcoal , helps get rid of a lot of dead branches around here, too.
I need some char for a new row in the garden and I have wanted to use up some really lousy stuff I found in the hedges and woods nearby. Drying and rotting deadwood 1 to 4 inches in diameter.
It's a misty rainy day(not much wind) so I thought would be a good one for a burn and I put a bit of it on video clips. Almost got rained out, so I rushed it a bit but all is well and ended up with about 5 gallons of charcoal. Today I doused it with a couple buckets of rainwater but usually I just dump it and cover with damp sawdust until it extinguishes. Hope you enjoy my small time set up...
I have pics of the set-ups and comments all mixed through my public gallery and video of the burn... also smaller scale burn is in my video clips....
patsapeachygal's Public Gallery - AOL Pictures
UnCut Video - Now Playing "charcoal firing experimental"
UnCut Video - Now Playing "charcoal fire- charring acorns in a wire basket"
UnCut Video - Now Playing "charcoal fire- speeding it up"
