11 replies to this topic

[Deano 1]

This is the third year I've tried to grow Paulownia from seed, and this is the furthest I've got, fingers crossed they don't curl up and die like the last lot.

If they are successful, hopefully there will be some nice cheep paulownia charcoal or free (except postage) wood going for my fellow pyro's in a few years.

It's supposed to be fast growing, so it shouldn't be too long.

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Edited by Deano 1, 30 July 2014 - 09:33 PM.

[Arthur Brown]

Pawlonia was offered as a coffin material when mum died, so there must be pawlonia wood available on the timber market, -Sold as greener as it doesn't take long to grow. Even the pawlonia coffin makers should be able to supply enough off cut wood for all our needs.

[Deano 1]

Pawlonia was offered as a coffin material when mum died, so there must be pawlonia wood available on the timber market, -Sold as greener as it doesn't take long to grow. Even the pawlonia coffin makers should be able to supply enough off cut wood for all our needs.

It was one of those " I wonder if I can grow that " moments 3 years ago, and then I didn't want it to beat me.

There's always that little bit more satisfaction the further you go back to the raw, if you know what I mean.

[Vic]

You can't beat growing your own timber for charcoal, I have planted willow Salix fragilis or crack willow. Going to coppice it every couple of years or so.

[Arthur Brown]

One o the books from RGPM indicated their liking for "Dogwood" and cited test results about 30% better than Alder or Willow.

[fruitfulsteve]

We coppice 'cut back or down' the trees in the plantations at RGPM quite a bit, especially during the winter. Can't remember all the names but there's certainly Willow and Alder and i'm sure a few others.

[Arthur Brown]

From the book I have (from the RGPM shop) they used to buy in huge amounts of wood for charcoaling as well as growing their own. Willow alder and dogwood being their named use woods.

[Deano 1]

You lot seem to be bursting my bubble.

[fruitfulsteve]

I think Arthur is referring to the gift/souvenir shop at the royal gunpowder mills.

[fruitfulsteve]

I suspect they were more concerned with making lots or reliable consistent BP as quickly as possible mostly for military use. The chap that wrote the book that Arthur is referring to, may have specialized in experimenting with different charcoals for BP.

 

It was powered my water mills at first then steam i suspect the Alder was for making charcoal for the BP, they also have a fair few willow trees but that might just be because of all the water around the site.

[Peret]

Quite so. When you're making powder for military use your sole interest is hitting the damn target every time, not seeing how high you can shoot a golf ball in the air. Mainly you need a constant and absolutely consistent supply of the same kind of charcoal, and it should never be the hottest available. If you happen to be running an Empire on which the Sun Never Sets, that wood needs to grow locally in a lot of different climates. In Lloyd and Hadcock's "Artillery" book they describe the difficulty of keeping the Navy, scattered all over the world, supplied with consistent propellant. The problem became particularly acute during the change-over to smokeless propellant. Depending what kind they gave you at the supply depot your guns could have a range of a couple of miles more, or less, than you had them sighted for.

 

I suspect they were more concerned with making lots or reliable consistent BP as quickly as possible mostly for military use. The chap that wrote the book that Arthur is referring to, may have specialized in experimenting with different charcoals for BP.

[Deano 1]

Never wanted to burst your bubble but all the tests we have done indicate the history books need updating so in way we did it, like all things if there is no research then you’re stuck in believing what you have had instilled in you, willow does not make the best BP and even worse is the willow that is sold on flea bay that we found to be useless but they tell you it’s willow and people buy it if that’s not a placebo then I don’t know what to say.

 Leylandii is your best bet easy to source good sparks and makes very fast BP, one other thing I have to check the results on straw charcoal from Phil cooper so far it would seem it outperformed Vine and Alder I would expect this charcoal to be in the top five I will post the results.

I've made and tested straw charcoal and it was mental, as was charcoal made from cotton sheet.