Homemade Charcoal

[Muggs]

 

[kiteflyingeek]

Thanks for sharing! I've seen similar videos but one was for char-cloth (to start fires) and the other was using much smaller containers (1gallon paint cans). Nice to see a production size version.

How did you figure out how long to burn? The other methods I've seen use a vent hole in the top of the small container. When that quits smoking the process is done. So I'm curious to know how you arrived at "burn 1/2, fill up, burn 1/2, fill up, burn all the way"?

--andrew

 

[flyingsquirrel25]

Very cool. wish my township would allow us to burn, I could see making biochar for additive to planting holes!

 

[Muggs]

Cooking is the only thing that I use it for. I take all of the ashes from my wood stove all winter and spread them over the gardens. I have this amazing tripod that I have been using for years for cooking outside, so much better than a BBQ. I had been just making a big fire, waiting for it to burn down, and then moving coals over for cooking. But this process takes a long time. So I researched making charcoal and this is what I settled on. With charcoal, I can have good hot coals ready for cooking in about 20 minutes, I love it. As far as methods, there are lots of different ones out there. I watched a lot of Youtube videos to figure out how to get it done. This method made the most sense to me so that's why I tried it. I had to play around with burn times to get the "minimum effective dose" that would produce charcoal without over-burning it. Sugar Maple definitely produces the best quality.