16 replies to this topic

[six-five-two]

I need help making charcoal. I read a few pages of the thread "Making charcoal" but I didn't want to bump it.

1. Is pine good to make into charcoal? (It is the cheapest wood I can find)
2. Do I really need to flip my paint tin/cookie tin over (and put soil on it) after I turn off the heat so that no oxygen gets into it?
3. Would an old cookie tin work? It is made out of (sometype) metal and has some patterns on it.

Thanks in advanced.

[MDH]

1. Pine is excellent for fountains and other effects. It's just satisfactory for lift unless you have a large mill and a lot of media - for bursting shells I find it to be pretty adiquate stuff. Poplar, willow, paulownia wood all make brilliantly explosive black powders but are very expensive.

2. No but it may help if you're using a cookie tin. Just wear gloves.

3. Yes... but it will corrode and turn into oxides extremely quickly and will develop holes. Better just to go to a salvation army store or whatever your local equivelant is and buy some old used cookie tins.

Just curious, where do you live?

[six-five-two]

Thanks for your help. I live in Canada. I dropped by my local thrift store and picked up a pot and lid (pyrex, clear) aswell, I was just wondering if I made the right choice or not when I have to flip it all over.

[seymour]

Hi Six-Five-Two,

Pine is a perfectly usable wood for making charcoal, it does not burn the very fastest but it is known for producing very good sparks. I would suggest being cautious about using bought timber, as the chemicals used to treat wood add to the ash content, and can even be dangerous, such as copper based wood treatments possibly reacting badly with ammonium salts or chlorates. If you harvest your own woods, you can not only ensure that they are pure, but you can select species which will produce better charcoal than store bought stuff.

An old cookie tin will work fine for producing up to a hundred grams or so of charcoal. I personally have started using a 200L drum, but if we all started that big most of us would have given up before they had made anything. Sealing your tin, by covering with damp sand or soil, by plugging the hole with a stick, or by any other method will improve your charcoal slightly as the hot charcoal will not start burning when it comes into contact with the air. However unless your tin has many, or very large holes this will be a minor issue, which you will get away with ignoring without much loss of quality.


While I can see that you are making an effort to not bring up dead posts, this is not something we have an issue with here, and in fact making a new topic is not encouraged when there is an option of "bringing an old topic from the dead" even if it is not fully relevant to what you wish to say.

Good luck,

Seymour

[seymour]

MDH, you beat me to it!

[six-five-two]

Alrighty. Thanks for your help.

But I have one final question: About how long does it take before the wood turns to charcoal? I mean, I may buy a mini propane burner but I am wondering if 1 batch of charcoal (lets just say I'm making a small batch with a soup can) will take up the whole propane tank (I mean those really small camping ones).

Also, I know where there is willow trees, except they are weeping willows, and from what I heard they are not as good as the other types of willow trees.

Err sorry, last question I'll squeeze in: I think it is kind of obvious, but just to make sure: Will pine burn significantly more faster then using barbeque charcoal briquettes or will there only be a minor difference?

[rocket]

When smoke stops coming out of your vent hole in you tin you’ll know you charcoal is done.

And yes Pine will be a lot better than BBQ charcoal, BBQ charcoal has a fair amount of clay and other useless stuff in it.

Edited by rocket, 11 March 2008 - 06:47 AM.

[seymour]

To add to what Rocket has said, The way many people judge if their charcoal is cooked, is by lighting the gases which come out of the vent hole (if they are not already burning) and when they burn blue, it is ready. Some barbecue charcoal does not contain clay, and is in the shape of the original wood. This is considerably better than the "briquettes" but is much slower than charcoal you can make yourself from good woods. A variety that I buy at the supermarket here in New Zealand is pine, and I use it for stars, rockets, and fountains. While weeping willow may be slower than other varieties of willow I do not think the difference would be more significant that, say how you cook it. To sum it up, if weeping willow is what you can get, use it!

[MDH]

"canada" is pretty vague. I was asking more about where you are locally so that I can give you more information on getting good charcoals...

[Bonny]

Another Canadian eh!? Right on, always nice to see.
I think the weeping willow will probably be just fine. I'm not even sure which types of willow I use, but my lift seems good enough. For general purpose BP (priming,blackamtch etc...) as well as sparks in fountains and stars I use (jack)pine or normal SPF (spruce/pine/fir)lumber offcuts. I cook my charcoal in a fire in cookie tins until the smoke stops and often don't even bother covering the small hole while letting it cool down.

[six-five-two]

Alright, I finally got around to making it...
To spare a long ass story about how I put wood in a can, etc. I'll just get to my problem.

I took my wood out after being "charcoaled" and now it seems to be as soft as styrofoam. Is this right? Also, after grinding it with a mortar and pestle, is the charcoal supposed to be really light?

Thanks again.

[MDH]

Yes. Softer charcoal is better.

[Arthur Brown]

The lightest fluffiest charcoal will incorporate into the other ingredients better than any thing else. Some people try to mill to lightness you are lucky that you start with fairly fine stock.

Write down your precise method so that it is repeatable with accuracy. Small batches are easier and quicker to make but there is the permanent challenge of perfect repeatability. write down the method then repeat it exactly or the next batch may be different.

[xXPyroJoeXx]

Hi people, could someone tell me where to find the best charcoal for making BP, im from the UK so it would have to be an English website, or a British shop.

Thanks

[Arthur Brown]

Try Cooperman435.