Making Charcoal

[Michaelangelica]

I may have posted this before somewhere? but once again won't hurt
A FEW LINKS ON MAKING CHARCOAL
Charcoal Retort

Discovery Online, The Skinny On ... Charcoal

Renewable Energy Generation » Making Charcoal from Sugar Cane Leaves - Renewable Energy News

Making Charcoal

Top Five Things to Do With Oil Barrels When There’s No More Oil To Fill Them - #1. Make Charcoal. » Transition Culture

Charcoal photos

English Charcoal, environment, history and woodmanship

Then there is pyrolysis, another story

[davidgmills]

In earlier threads I have discussed my numerous attempts at making charcoal and it turned out to be quite decent. What it taught me is that making your own gives you a real good sense of what kind of charcoal to buy when you actually find some to buy. I now buy mine at Lowe's -- a brand called Cowboy Charcoal. It seems like exceptionally fine charcoal, better even than I could make. My own attempts to make charcoal really make me appreciate it. It is made primarily from pieces of scrap lumber. Quite obvious many times that what I am looking at looks like trim molding. Probably most is pine.

But the problem has been how to pulverize it since this is lump charcoal and in good sized lumps, many being several inches in length by a half inch in depth and a couple inches in width.

Here is the aboriginal method I "discovered" to make small particles.

Quite simple. Take a flat rock. Take a rubber mallet. Put charcoal on rock and pound. Imagine an aboriginal with a wood mallet instead of a rubber one.

Would not recommend a metal hammer face at all because of the danger of a broken piece of rock flying.

Works very well for the small garden. Sat right in the middle of the garden and began pounding chunks of charcoal. Very efficient at pulverizing the charcoal. Good therapy as well. I didn't have a very large mallet face. No doubt a larger mallet head would speed the process up.

I also discovered that taking clods of dried clay and breaking them with the mallet on the rock makes for a pretty good mix.

About time to begin planting my garden here in Memphis.

[mathuranatha]

sorry,aparantly your message bounced--my email is mathuranathadadas108 @gmail.com

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by mathuranatha

sorry,aparantly your message bounced--my email is mathuranathadadas108 @gmail.com

David,
Aboriginals might have pounded it up in much the same way as they made flour with a gigantic "pestle" bowl and a log as the mortar.
I can see it in my head If I found apicture it would explain it in a milli -second.
Here is one a communial effort
http://www.thirdangle.com/snapshots/...3B7EB38BA8.jpg
Here we go still happening in the middle east?
http://www.galen-frysinger.com/middl.../bahrain68.jpg

O dear! an hour gone looking at google pictures
I found an electron microscope pic. of charcoal (BEST Energies have some brilliant ones- must see if they would like to share.) and some other weird Japanese stuff on charcoal that I don't understand.
Anyone want to try and translate?
Google Image Result for http://www.petesthe.com/images/cha_image02.jpg

I use the flat side of a brick while it is still in the bag; but mine is re-constituted bamboo or coconut char and might be a bit easier.

Just an interesting note I found on Coppicing

And as my old ecology professor used to say,
"productive coppice & standards woodland holds the highest biodiversity of any European ecosystem."

Not to mention the ~20% better wood yield from coppicing
(felling deciduous trees at less than 35 years and letting them regrow from the stump).

There are other random bits about char at this site too:-
The CO2 sings 'Bury me, buuuu-reee me, bury me, across the world' | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist

[Michaelangelica]

Interesting article, if a little dated
Has a couple of references to books on the subject
How charcoal briquette is made - Background, History, Raw materials, The manufacturing process of charcoal briquette, Byproducts/waste

[mathuranatha]

Hey ,I've dug a pit [about 2 cubic meters] and have accumulated a big mound of charcoa l[3or4 cubic meters] and am wondering how best to crush it or if crushing is necessary . I made some garden beds, some without biochar and some with[30%]about 2 months ago , not much difference in growth rates though.

[Gerrit]

Here's a link to a present day charcoal maker from Poland from Wikipedia. It is called a retort style, but it doesn't look like one. Don't see how they fit a furnace underneath it.

Image:Charcoal retorts cm01.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But I would like to build a retort style about this size. Anybody have any clue?

[Philip Small]

Originally Posted by Gerrit

Here's a link to a present day charcoal maker from Poland from Wikipedia. It is called a retort style, but it doesn't look like one.

Definitely _not_ a retort. I have seen photos/article about this style of charcoal maker in England or the SE USA (can't recall exactly). IIRC, They said they needed two or three to make good use of their time: one to fill, one burning, maybe one to be cooling off. I'll try to find the link.

Here is a link to a medium sized retort: you would need some massive tanks to upscale it. Make sure you look at the last two pictures for his improved version. I want it!

[palmtreepathos]

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"

[palmtreepathos]

I have found a better way to char the acorns that I have in such abundance. I cut a 3 inch diameter pipe from the frame of an old swingset into 24 inch sections and plugged the bottom of each one by pushing it into the local clay (2 inches). This made a tube-like container which can then be filled with the acorns and stood in the trash can/burner along with other 1-3 inch branches. They charred nicely and did not pop out . I may try to cap one with clay in the next burn to stop flame from shooting out the top. They reduced in size by half, little charcoal balls to experiment with, maybe for hydroponics??