[TheForge] charcoal

[marilyn traber 011221]

> I have some cull logs and wondered if anyone has tried making 
> charcoal and is it worth the effort? I use gas and also like coal 
> but it would be nice to make own fuel if practical. There are a lot 
> of sawmills in the area and I can get trimmings cheaply, but is 
> there a lot of work once you have the wood? Thanks, Bob
> 

I haven't done it yet, although I've been looking into it, since charcoal is 
my preferred fuel, but I suspect it depends on what you consider "work. Most 
plans I've seen involve using a 55 gallon drum, with controllable air holes 
in it. You light the fire, choke it down to where it's smoldering rather than 
burning, and leave it alone, other than checking on it occasionally to make 
sure it hasn't gone out or burned up all your wood.

The pre-prep looks the most potentially labor intensive. I gather from the 
lump charcoal I get that you don't really want logs, but rather chunks of 
wood a couple inches in diameter, maybe kindling size or so, so turning logs 
into that size might by a bit time comsuming.

Apparently, in my time period in England, charcoal burning was done with the 
wood they got from coppicing, so most of the branches started out fairly 
small.

There's quite a few sites out there on making charcoal. Google "making 
charcoal" and you should find out a fair amount. I'd direct you to the sites 
I've found, but I don't have my computer back yet.

Phlip