[TheForge] Re: charcoal question

[Jerry Frost]

I can't say what kind of charcoal your poplar will 
make, some is good some is useless. Around here the 
poplar and cottonwood is useless for firewood but there 
was a bladesmith who used only cottonwood charcoal. 
That caught us by surprise but his results were 
irrefutabley excellent.

The two tier retort would be a wood gassification unit 
and will be pretty efficient. What I plan when possible 
is to make charcoal during winter and use the waste 
heat for the shop. It'll give the wood time to season 
too though I'll just rob the household firewood stack.

Frosty
-------------------------------
If it ain't forged
it ain't real.
Wrought iron is.
The FrostWorks

Meadow Lakes, AK.


From: "Mike Spencer" <mspencer at tallships.ca>




>
> I have several tall, fairly large poplar trees that 
> have to come down
> because of the risk of them breaking off and falling 
> on the
> shop. (Yes, that tall) Makes pretty poor firewood and 
> only a little is
> suitable for boards.  Rots too quickly to be good for 
> anything outdoors
> as posts or baulks.
>
> So if I slice these up into 3" thick slices and heat 
> them up in a 200
> gal oil tank, will I get good stuff?
>
> I racall a demonstrator at DePere (84) saying he used 
> a two-tier
> arrangement with a firebox under the retort part. 
> The fumes from the
> wood were piped to the fire box where they burned to 
> provide external
> heat.
>
> - Mike
>
> --